From Sword to Shield: The Transformation of the Corporate Income Tax, 1861 to PresentThe U. S. corporate income tax and in particular the double taxation of corporate income has long been one of the most criticized and stubbornly persistent aspects of the federal revenue system. Unlike in most other industrialized countries, corporate income is taxed twice, first at the entity level and again at the shareholder level when distributed as a dividend. The conventional wisdom has been that this double taxation was part of the system's