Why should corporations pay taxes?

[rbnyc]

Edit to add link of ALEC politicians: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Politicians

[OHdem10]

1. They are "persons" and since Citizens United Decision they have

more than a vote. They can spend any amount of money
to influence elections.

[stevenelijah]

2. My corporation

The corporation I own does not pay taxes. I just pass the tax bill on to the consumer. I may write the check but the public pays the bill.

The bigger the tax bill the more joe public pays.

[Zax2me]

3. Oh yea?

What type of business is it?

[stevenelijah]

4. Service

My company has 18 employes. We offer instructional services. I have lot's of competition so I try to keep the prices as low as possible. If I did not pay taxes I would lower my prices. The taxes I pay are simply passed on to the consumer.

[Zax2me]

7. Well ,we would all like to not pay taxes.

We do live in a free market society.
So if a competitior of yours is able to absorb the cost of a tax better than you, perhaps without the passing on to customers all of the cost of that tax - then maybe your business dying out is part of the cycle.
It is competitive out there.
That's the reality of a free economy society.
Find a way to deal with the taxes like everyone else in your position or find another way to make a living.

[Angry Dragon]

14. What you say makes no sense to me

The taxes you pay are based on your profits, not your revenue.
The expenses are already taken out so it is profit minus taxes

[Selatius]

5. You can pass a tax on production to the consumer (e.g. sales tax) but not a tax on income.

If you make a hundred dollars and had to pay 1% income tax, you could raise prices the following period to raise $101, but you'd be paying the same 1% this time on $101.

[stevenelijah]

6. Taxes

Taxes are just part of the cost of doing business. All my costs (utilities, insurance, taxes, everything) is passed on to the consumer.

They don't pay for these things with a sales tax...the cost of these things is part of the service price.

[Selatius]

10. They'd have to be some form of production/service tax so that they can be passed on.

My family owns several stores all held by a corporate entity owned by the same family; the entity simply exists for liability reasons. Any income accrued can simply be reclassified as a labor cost (usually in the form of a bonus), so the entity itself makes no income on paper, so it pays no income tax. Individual family members and employees, however, are responsible for the personal income that they make.

[FormerDittoHead]

12. Nice to be in a market where there is no meaningful competition. n/t

[begin_within]

8. Why? Because corporations receive benefits from the government.

[Squeech]

9. Exactly

Not actually being a real person, a corporation may not need health care or a driver's license.

But if you think a corporation, especially a small closely held corporation, can maintain in a world where it doesn't have access to, say, the court system to enforce contracts and defend it against ripoffs, then I invite you to go live and do business on one of those artificial island nations the Google CEO wants to build.

[Tennessee Gal]

11. Corporations benefit from a load of government services.

Like these and many more:

The printing of our currency, public roads, rural electrification, government subsidized telephone wiring, satellite communications, police protection, military protection, the criminal justice system, fire and paramedic protection, an educated and immunized workforce, protection against plagues, public-funded loans, protection from business fraud and unfair business practices, the protection of patents and copyrights, research and development, collection and analysis of data, preventative economic policies by the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Energy Management Agency, infrastructures, agricultural and biological services, the National Weather Service, and public job training.

[ThomWV]

13. Because while using resources paid for by humans they earn money

If they don't pay for the roads then we do - and yes, I understand completely the argument that they pay with "our money", that which they got in trade for their products. But that's nonsense, its not "our money" any more, not once we trade it for product. It is the corporation's profit that needs to be taxed just as any profit I might earn by my endeavors would be.