Additionally, we impose various surreptitious tax-like requirements on companies: health insurance can't charge your actuarial price (equivalent to taxing the healthy and paying the sick), rural and city customers must pay similar prices for various resources, etc.
But I agree with you - we should replace all these taxes with a single transparent consumption tax.
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...
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_...
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.