Treasury Department takes down an economic analysis that undermines a key GOP tax-cut argument


The Treasury Department has removed from its website a 2012 economic analysis that found the burden of corporate taxes primarily falls on business owners and shareholders, not workers, undermining a key argument Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been making to promote the Republicans' plans to cut the corporate tax rate, The Wall Street Journal reports. Mnuchin and other Trump administration officials argue that workers would be the big beneficiary of cutting the tax on corporate profits to 20 percent, from 35 percent, but the 2012 paper from the Office of Tax Analysis shows that workers only bear 18 percent of the cost of corporate taxes, versus 82 percent for corporate owners.
Most mainstream economists broadly agree with that analysis — the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation and Congressional Budget Office, for example, found that capital's corporate tax burden is 75 percent, versus 25 percent for workers, WSJ notes. (The Week's Jeff Spross has a good explainer on the theory and realities of corporate tax burdens.) "The paper was a dated staff analysis from the previous administration," a Treasury spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal. "It does not represent our current thinking and analysis." The newspaper noted that the Treasury site still has up other technical papers from the Obama administration and working papers dating back to 1974.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Crossword: September 14, 2025
The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Sudoku medium: September 14, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year