If Sen. Jon Tester votes for the Democrats’ reconciliation bill, he will stick Montana companies with a higher tax rate than communist China.

The Democrats’ reconciliation bill would saddle Montana with a combined federal-state corporate tax rate of 31.5% vs. communist China’s 25%.

The Democrat bill will also put Montana companies at a competitive disadvantage vs. Europe: The European average corporate tax rate is 19%.

“As the country tries to recover from a once-in-a-century pandemic, Tester must explain why he wants to stick Montanans with higher taxes than China and Europe,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

The Democrats’ $3.5 trillion bill will impose the largest tax increase since 1968. It will raise individual income taxes, small business taxes, corporate taxes, and capital gains taxes. If passed, the combined federal-state capital gains tax rate for Montanans would be 38.41% vs. China’s 20%.

The burden of the corporate tax rate hike will be borne by workers in the form of lower wages, and by households in the form of higher prices. Higher corporate tax rates will also raise utility bills.

The non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation recently affirmed in congressional testimony that the corporate tax rate hike will fall on “labor, laborers.

Testifying before the House Ways & Means Committee, JCT Chief of Staff Thomas A. Barthold said:

“Literature suggests that 25% of the burden of the corporate tax may be borne by labor in terms of diminished wage growth.”