Knowledge Base

Corporation Tax, imposts levied by federal, state, or local governments against corporations, their income, or their peculiar attributes, such as charters, capitalization, dividends, and franchise. In the USA such taxes were brought about by the difficulty of taxing corporate bonds and stocks and by the growth of corporations beyond state bounds, with consequent difficulty of assessment and taxation. Such special state corporation taxes now include fees and licenses for incorporation or for an increase in capitalization or for filling the corporation's charter in a another state; taxes on gross earnings; taxes on tonnage and financial instruments or transactions; franchise taxes; capital stock taxes; and net income taxes.