A necessary step in addressing questions of business tax incidence or resource allocation is the development of adequate measures of interstate business tax differentials. Earlier work by Wheaton is extended and updated by the construction of new estimates of the aggregate state and local taxation of US business over the period 1971–86. The results suggest the following: First, the average level of business taxation by state and local governments is approximately 5% of net business income. Second, there appears to be substantial and increasing variation in the effective tax rate on businesses among the individual states. Third, the Northeast remains a place of significantly high tax burdens on businesses. And, last, certain states experience more variation in their effective tax rate over time—a phenomenon at least partly attributable to the effects of the business cycle on business income.
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