Corporate income taxes (click here and here for charts):

• In 1965, U.S. corporate income taxes were 4.1% of our GDP, compared to 2.4% of GDP in the other OECD countries.
• But by 2000 U.S. corporate income taxes had dropped to 2.5% of GDP, while corporate income taxes in the other OECD countries had risen to 3.4% of GDP.
• In 2002, U.S. corporate taxes plummeted to only 1.5% of our GDP.

Personal income taxes:

• Personal income taxes in the United States rose from 37% of total federal, state and local revenues in 1970 to 42% in 2000 (but declined sharply since then).
• In contrast, over that same period, personal income taxes remained at a quarter of total revenues in the other OECD countries (although they rose as a share of GDP, from 6.5% to 8.8%).

Social insurance taxes:

• Social Security and other social insurance taxes (generally wage taxes) have risen rapidly worldwide.
• Since 1965, social insurance taxes in the U.S. have risen from 3.3% of GDP to 6.9%.
• In the other OECD countries, social insurance taxes rose from 6.2% of GDP to 10.7%.

Sales, excise and other consumption taxes:

• Reliance on sales taxes and other consumption taxes has fallen worldwide since 1965.
• In 1965, the United States raised a fifth of its total federal, state and local taxes from consumption taxes. In 2001, the U.S. raised a seventh of its total taxes from consumption taxes.
• In the other OECD countries, consumption taxes were a third of total taxes in 1965, but less than a quarter of the total in 2000. (Europe’s replacement of cascading gross receipts taxes with value-added taxes solely on personal consumption around 1970 contributed to this downward trend.)

Property & wealth taxes:

• Property and wealth taxes in the U.S. fell from 3.9% of GDP in 1965 to 2.9% by 1980, and have been stable thereafter (3.0% in 2000).
• In the other OECD countries, property and wealth taxes fell somewhat from 1965 to 1980 (from 2.2% of GDP to 1.9%), but have since risen to 2.5% of GDP in 2000.