James Freeman laments in a recent editorial that it is “not easy to find a country with a higher corporate tax rate than America’s 40%.” He finds that even more remarkable since many of the countries with truly oppressive governments have a lower and thus more competitive tax policy.

A recent study by KPMG accountants of rates in 130 countries only turned up one country with a rate higher than the U.S. The top rate in the United Arab Emirates is 55% but is generally applied only to foreign oil companies.

Earlier this month I was teaching in Hungary as I read about the study of tax rates. I remembered that Hungary had a lower corporate tax. I looked it up. The tax rate in Hungary is 19%. Five countries border Hungary. Four of them have an even lower rate (Serbia is 15%, Romania is 16%, Slovenia is 17%, and Ukraine is 18%). Slovakia has a slightly higher rate at 22%. All of these former communist countries have a corporate tax rate less than the U.S.

The high corporate tax rate in America is driving U.S. companies overseas. I am not just talking about companies moving to Mexico and China. Many are moving to Europe. The drug company Pfizer announced its desire to purchase AstraZeneca and reincorporate in the United Kingdom. The U.S. Treasury would take a big hit if Pfizer leaves America.

It isn’t just the corporate tax rate that would hasten their departure. Most European countries do not impose a tax on profits made overseas. That allows them to repatriate profits without paying the punitive tax they would have to pay as a U.S. company. More than $2 trillion in foreign profits are held overseas by American corporations in order to avoid taxes.

America’s high corporate tax rate is higher than nearly every country in the world and will continue to drive business overseas.