What is the average tax rate for a business?

As of 2013, the average tax rate paid by corporations was just 12.6 percent, according to The Huffington Post. That tax liability is much lower than the top corporate tax rate of 35 percent due to the deductions and tax credits available to most businesses.

Certain types of small businesses, such as S corporations and partnerships, pay an effective tax rate much higher than the average corporate tax rate, due in part because these entities pay individual income tax, rather than corporate income tax, and therefore do not have access to the same deductions and credits, explains The Huffington Post. S corporations and partnerships pay an average tax rate of 31.6 percent and 29.4 percent, respectively.