>corporate taxes (some of the highest in the world)

Highest theoretical rates, the effective tax rate is another story.

"The top statutory tax rate of 35% in the U.S. is somewhat higher than that of 30 other OECD countries, but the average effective tax rate — the actual rate paid after deductions and credits — is slightly lower than our competitors" [0]

[0]http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/tax-fairness-briefing...

The quoted statement is highly deceptive. It is backed up with "Our average effective tax rate is 27.1% compared with 27.7% for the other 30 OECD countries, according to CRS", but 27.7% is the rate including the US, which is not a sensible comparison. According to the cited CRS report, the average excluding the US is 23.3% [edit, see below: note that these are GDP-weighted averages].

Additionally, the PwC study the CRS uses [1] provides a full list and ranking. The only OECD countries with higher effective rates are Japan, Germany, and Italy. So, the US effective rate is lower than that of only 3 of "our competitors" and higher than that of the other 26.

[1] http://businessroundtable.org/sites/default/files/Effective_...

At a glance I feel like I am missing something. If the average without the US is 23.3% and the US average is 27.1% then how can the combination of the two lead to an average of 27.7%? That doesn't seem right.

I understand that including the US would raise the average, but it shouldn't take it from below the US average to above the US average.

The average is weighted by GDP (another reason it is important to examine the rankings).