Corporate tax solutions provider Vertex has been tracking the U.S. average sales tax rate since 1982. Last year, the average hit a new record — 5.468 percent — according to the firm’s latest report, published this week.

Seven states increased their standard rate in 2009 (also a record).

More worrying, perhaps, for the companies that have to collect and remit these funds, is the fact that tax authorities are levying more and more new sales and use taxes, and they’re changing the ones they’ve already established more frequently. more

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Do enterprise cost reduction efforts cause ethical misconduct among employees?

This question poses a potentially troubling connection … and a new survey report provides a dispiriting answer: quite possibly.

The report is an addendum to the 2009 Ethics Resource Center’s recent update to its ongoing National Business Ethics Survey, which I blogged about here.

Here’s the jarring introduction to this research brief:

“In order to address changing needs and to weather financial struggles, companies often have to make difficult decisions that impact employees’ lives at — and outside of — work.

“Companies use a variety of tactics (adjusted work schedules, layoffs, reductions in compensation and/or benefits, hiring freezes, early buyouts, production slowdowns, and plant closures). Research conducted as a part of the 2009 National Business Ethics Survey reveals that all of these tactics are related to significant increases in the number of employees observing misconduct.”

The five-page brief offers five findings and five related take-aways based on an analysis of responses to the Business Ethics Survey data. more