The Tax Foundation’s publication Taxing Powerhouses: The Crucial Role of Businesses in Sustaining Government Revenue shows how businesses contribute to government revenue through the taxes they are legally liable to pay and the taxes they are required to collect and remit on behalf of others.
All the revenue data used in this publication comes from the OECD's Comparative Tables of Revenue Statistics in OECD member countries (https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?lc=en&fs[0]=Topic%2C1%7CTaxation%23TAX%23%7CGlobal%20tax%20revenues%23TAX_GTR%23&pg=0&fc=Topic&bp=true&snb=153&df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_REV_COMP_OECD%40DF_RSOECD&df[ag]=OECD.CTP.TPS&df[vs]=1.1&dq=..S13._T..PT_B1GQ.A&lom=LASTNPERIODS&lo=10&to[TIME_PERIOD]=false) and Comparative Tables of countries in the global database (https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_REV_COMP_GLOBAL%40DF_RSGLOBAL&df[ag]=OECD.CTP.TPS&df[vs]=1.1&dq=..S13._T..PT_B1GQ.A&lom=LASTNPERIODS&lo=10&to[TIME_PERIOD]=false). The datasetes combine data from the annual publications Revenue Statistics, Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean, Revenue Statistics in Africa and Revenue Statistics in Asia and the Pacific. It also includes data for countries that are not included in any regional publication. The datasets include internationally comparable data on the level and structure of tax revenues for more than 130 economies are available from 1990 onwards (1965 for OECD members) As of March 2025, the most recent data is 2023 for OECD countries and 2022 for non-OECD countries.
Tax revenues are classified according to the methodology of OECD Revenue Statistics, which can be found in Annex A of the “Revenue Statistics 2024,” https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/revenue-statistics-2024_c87a3da5-en/full-report/component-9.html#annex-d1e746315-fc012931d9.
The OECD's Global Revenue Statistics Database provides various categories for the different tax revenue sources. For our report, we chose and combined the categories in this table. The revenues are separated into four categories: business’ legal tax liability, business’ legal remittance responsibility, non-business remittance, and unallocated revenue.
| Revenue Category | Business’ Legal Tax Liability | Business’ Legal Remittance Responsibility | Non-business Remittance | Unallocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000. Taxes on income, profits, and capital gains | ||||
| 1100. Taxes on income, profits, and capital gains of individuals | ||||
| 1110. On income and profits | Non-corporate business income subject to PIT(1) | Withholding taxes on labor income (2) | PIT paid directly by individuals and the public sector withholding taxes on labor income | --- |
| 1120. On capital gains (withholding taxes) (2) | ||||
| 1200. Corporate taxes on income, profits, and capital gains | ||||
| 1210. On income and profits | ||||
| 1220. On capital gains | ||||
| 1300. Unallocable as between 1100 and 1200 | ||||
| 2000. Social security contributions | ||||
| 2100. Employees (excluding public sector) | Public sector employees’ contribution | |||
| 2200. Employers(excluding public-sector) | Public-sector (employer) social security contributions | |||
| 2300. Self-employed or non-employed | ||||
| 2400. Unallocable as between 2100, 2200 and 2300 | ||||
| 3000. Taxes on payroll and workforce | All paid by businesses (except for public sector employees) | Public-sector employees' payroll and workforce taxes | ||
| 4000. Taxes on property | ||||
| 4100. Recurrent taxes on immovable property | ||||
| 4120. Other | 4110. Households | |||
| 4200. Recurrent taxes on net wealth | ||||
| 4210. Individual | ||||
| 4220. Corporate | ||||
| 4300. Estate, inheritance, and gift taxes | ||||
| 4310. Estate and inheritance taxes | ||||
| 4320. Gift taxes | ||||
| 4400. Taxes on financial and capital transactions | ||||
| 4500. Other non-recurrent taxes on property | ||||
| 4600. Other recurrent taxes on property | ||||
| -5000. Taxes on goods and services | ||||
| 5100. Taxes on production, sale, transfer, leasing, and delivery of goods and rendering of services | ||||
| 5110. General taxes | ||||
| 5111. Value added taxes | ||||
| 5112. Sales taxes (3) | ||||
| 5113. Turnover and other general taxes on goods and services | ||||
| 5120. Taxes on specific goods and services | ||||
| 5121. Excises | ||||
| 5122. Profits of fiscal monopolies | ||||
| 5123. Customs and import duties | ||||
| 5124. Taxes on exports | ||||
| 5125. Taxes on investment goods | ||||
| 5126. Taxes on specific services (4) | ||||
| 5127. Other taxes on international trade and transactions | ||||
| 5128. Other taxes on specific goods and services | ||||
| 5130. Unallocable as between 5110 and 5120 | ||||
| 5200. Taxes on use of goods, or on permission to use goods or perform activities | ||||
| 5210. Recurrent taxes | ||||
| 5211. Paid by households in respect of motor vehicles | ||||
| 5212. Paid by others in respect of motor vehicles | ||||
| 5213. Other recurrent taxes (5) | ||||
| 5220. Non-recurrent taxes (6) | ||||
| 5300. Unallocable as between 5100 and 5200 | ||||
| 6000. Other taxes | ||||
| 6100. Paid solely by business | ||||
| 6200. Paid by other than business or unidentifiable |
Note: (1) According to data from a survey conducted with delegates from OECD member countries and published in A. Milanez, “Legal tax liability, legal remittance responsibility, and tax incidence: Three dimensions of business taxation,” OECD, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1787/e7ced3ea-en. (2) This paper characterizes the tax revenue collected in the form of withholding taxes on labor and capital income as businesses’ legal remittance responsibility. (3) Generally, sales taxes are a business’s legal remittance responsibility. However, in some instances, and especially in the US, sales taxes partly tax business inputs. This report adjusts the US’s business tax liability using the estimates available in Ernst & Young LLP, "Total state and local business taxes State-by-state estimates for FY23," December 2024, https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/en-us/insights/tax/documents/ey-50-state-tax-burden-study.pdf. (4) Insurance premiums, banking services, gambling and betting stakes, transport, entertainment, restaurant, and advertising charges. Taxes levied on the gross income of companies providing a specific service (transportation, insurance, banking, entertainment, restaurants, and advertising). (5) Business and professional licenses paid by enterprises in order to obtain a license to carry on a particular kind of business or profession when the levies are on a recurring basis. While there might be some licenses that are not paid directly by the professionals and companies, the amount is considered negligible. Therefore, 5213 is fully considered a business legal remittance. (6) Taxes levied on the emission or discharge into the environment of noxious gases, liquids, or other harmful substances. Also, once-and-for-all payments for permission to sell liquor or tobacco or to set up betting shops are included here.
- Total_Tax__Contribution.R The R code reads in and downloads the necessary data, cleans the data, merges datasets, and produces final output tables.
- 'country_codes.csv' Dataset that includes all 249 sovereign states and dependent territories that have been assigned a country code by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Includes official country names in various languages, ISO country codes, continents, and further geographical information.
- 'SSC_government.xlsx' Table that includes social security contributions and payroll taxes paid by government in OECD member countries. This data comes from OECD's Social security contributions and payroll taxes paid by government in OECD member countries (https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?lc=en&df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_REV_COMP_OECD%40DF_SSCPTOECD&df[ag]=OECD.CTP.TPS&df[vs]=1.1&dq=AUT%2BBEL%2BCAN%2BCHL%2BCOL%2BCRI%2BCZE%2BDNK%2BEST%2BFIN%2BFRA%2BDEU%2BGRC%2BHUN%2BIRL%2BISR%2BITA%2BJPN%2BLVA%2BLTU%2BLUX%2BMEX%2BNLD%2BNZL%2BNOR%2BPOL%2BPRT%2BSVK%2BSVN%2BESP%2BSWE%2BCHE%2BTUR%2BGBR%2BUSA..S13.T_2000_3000%2BT_3000%2BT_2000..XDC.A&pd=2023%2C2023&to[TIME_PERIOD]=false&vw=ov). This data is used to calculate the Social Security contributions and Personal Income tax paid by the Public Sector.
- 'Employment_Private_total.xlsx' Table that shows the Percentage of Private Employment in Total Employment for the year 2022. Public and total employment data comes fron the OECD's Annual employment and population for 'Developer API' (https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?lc=en&df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_NAMAIN10%40DF_TABLE3&df[ag]=OECD.SDD.NAD&df[vs]=2.0&dq=A.BEL%2BCAN%2BCHL%2BCOL%2BCRI%2BCZE%2BDNK%2BEST%2BFIN%2BFRA%2BDEU%2BGRC%2BHUN%2BISL%2BIRL%2BISR%2BITA%2BJPN%2BKOR%2BLVA%2BLTU%2BLUX%2BMEX%2BNLD%2BNZL%2BNOR%2BPOL%2BPRT%2BSVK%2BSVN%2BESP%2BSWE%2BCHE%2BGBR%2BUSA%2BEA20%2BEU27_2020%2BWXOECD%2BBRA%2BBGR%2BHRV%2BCYP%2BMLT%2BMKD%2BROU%2BRUS%2BSRB%2BZAF%2BAUT.S1%2BS13._Z%2BS1.EMP.._Z%2B_T..PS...&pd=2021%2C2023&to[TIME_PERIOD]=false&vw=tb&ly[cl]=TABLE_IDENTIFIER%2CTIME_PERIOD%2CACTIVITY&ly[rs]=SECTOR%2CCOUNTERPART_SECTOR&ly[rw]=REF_AREA), International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT (database), Public employment by sectors and sub-sectors of national accounts (https://rplumber.ilo.org/data/indicator/?id=EMP_TEMP_SEX_IND_INS_NB_A&sex=SEX_T&classif1=IND_SECTOR_TOTAL&classif2=INS_SECTOR_TOTAL+INS_SECTOR_PUB&timefrom=2022&timeto=2022&type=label&format=.csv) and OECD' Government at a Glance 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1787/3d5c5d31-en). For the countries where social security contributions and payroll taxes paid by the government is not available, we use the percentage of public employment/ total employment to calculate the Social Security contributions and Income tax paid by the Public Sector.
- 'Pass_through.xlsx' Table that includes Non-corporate Business Tax Revenue as a Percentage of Total Taxes on Income, Profits, and Capital Gains (Revenue Statistics Category 1000). Source: Table 4 in A. Milanez, “Legal tax liability, legal remittance responsibility, and tax incidence: Three dimensions of business taxation,” OECD, 2017, (https://doi.org/10.1787/e7ced3ea-en). This data is used to calculate the amount of individual income that is in fact non-corporate business income.
- 'oecd_europe_wide.csv' Preliminary tax revenue data by category for OECD and European non-OECD countries for the year 2023. Data for Australia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Malta, Poland, Romania, and Japan is from 2022.
- 'oecd_europe_table.csv' Final table showing Business and Non-Business Sources of Revenue in OECD and EU Countries as a percentage of Total Tax Revenue.