Justin Fox, Columnist

The U.S. Is a Low-Tax Nation

New data disagrees with the president-elect's assessment.

My country 'tis of thee.

Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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There's new data out on the taxes that people and corporations in the world's affluent nations paid in 2015. The U.S. total tax burden of 26.4 percent of gross domestic product (that includes state and local taxes) once again lands us pretty far down in the rankings. Of the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the affluent-nations club, only South Korea, Ireland, Chile and Mexico have lower tax burdens.1480947545554

It is true that the OECD's membership is dominated by small, high-tax European nations, which kind of skews a chart like this. But even if you just look at the five biggest OECD economies, the U.S. has been the one with the lowest taxes for a while now.