Corporate Tax Code Proves Hard to Change

President Obama on Tuesday added his name to the long list of politicians who have called for an overhaul of those rules, so that companies of all kinds pay the federal government a roughly equal share of their annual profits.

“It makes no sense, and it has to change,” Mr. Obama said in his State of the Union address. “Get rid of the loopholes. Level the playing field. And use the savings to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years — without adding to our deficit. It can be done.”