It is said that no company pays taxes -- that all a company's taxes (indeed, all of a company's expenses, period) are included in the price of its products or services.  And, since everything you buy is made by companies, guess who pays those taxes that are buried in the price?   Now, let's take this thought a bit further along the road.  Just for the sake of discussion, let's say that companies, whether they are corporations or not, pay everybody's taxes. 

Where does the government get its money? 

Well, you say,  it gets its money from taxes, mostly, and the rest comes from regulatory fees of various kinds. And tariffs..  Exactly correct.  These taxes, now, who pays them?  Well, you do.  But, where do you get the money to do that?

Let's take your income taxes.  Where do you get the money to pay them?  That's right.  They come out of the salary you earn.   Let's take your property taxes. Where do you get the money to pay them?  That's right. They come out of the salary you earn.  Where do you get the money to pay your gasoline taxes?  That's right.  Every dime of every tax you pay comes from your salary. 

So, where does your salary come from?

Very good.  Now, if your taxes are doubled, what will have to happen?  Right.  Either you suffer a lowering of your standard of living or your company has to raise your salary. Do you understand, yet?  Every time any tax of any kind is introduced or raised, the people who have to pay that tax need more money from their employer.  Whether they are the owners of the company or employees of the company, the money has to come from the same place -- the company. To pay out more money, a company must spend less money on something else, or take in more money.  The simplest way to do the latter is to raise prices.

It could slash the pay of the executives, of course.  You don't think they're worth what you make, let alone what they make.  To hell with them.  Make sure you get to the unemployment line early.  You'll find out almost immediately that they were worth what they got paid after all.  When the company closes its doors, you'll figure it out.

Well, you say, take the money from the fat profits the big investors get.  Same result. Be sure to get to the unemployment line early.  If they wanted a 2% return on their money, they'd put it in a bank, where you put yours.  When the company closes its doors, you'll figure it out

Sorry, but the only options a company has to pay your higher taxes is to lower costs, make and sell more product or raise prices.  Are you interested in taking a pay cut?  How about doing the work of your own plus the people they laid off?  No?  Then, to make and sell more product without increasing your workload means capital investments in upgraded production systems.  New plants.  New machinery.  Let's get money from the government to do that.  And, where will the government get the money to give to us?  Damn.  Companies, again.  The government will be robbing from Peter to pay Paul. Well, that leaves higher prices.

So, if you vote for politicians who raise taxes on corporations, you raise prices.  And if you vote for politicians who raise taxes on individuals, prices go up then, as well.  To keep the company's workers alive, the company (who provides them the money they need to pay their taxes) must raise its prices to its customers.  If the government raises taxes high enough, the customers stop buying the company's products and go somewhere else looking for what they want. You are out of a job.

No kidding.  This happened early in the stupid Clinton administration when the Democrat-controlled congress jacked up taxes on rich people's boats.  All the rich people went to Holland to buy their boats.  The New England boatbuilding industry collapsed and there were some pissed blue collar boat carpenters, I can tell you. (Shipwrights, I think they're called.)  Never in your life have you seen Democrats leave skid marks scrambling to rescind a tax like they did on that one. New England liberal Republicans, essentially Democrats wearing a tie, are a key swing voting bloc.  Democrats depend on them.  Every one of those seats was threatened by this stupid tax move, so the tax was dramatically reduced.  The Dems learned a lesson.  Never tax your voter base's employer into bankruptcy. Don't do it quickly, anyway.  You must do that very slowly, so the general public doesn't make the connection between the tax and the unemployment line. 

It's no wonder companies head offshore.  The very people who complain about the loss of American jobs, the "working classes,," see to it with their votes and their voices that the source of their personal income, and their nation's income, is squeezed until there's no other choice.  I know a great many of you don't believe what you've just read.  More importantly, I know why you don't believe it. 

You don't want to, and with the Enron collapse ringing in your ears, you don't have to.  One day, perhaps, you'll see that Enron was nothing.  A fly speck on the multi-trillion dollar American economy. It didn't even matter much to the energy sector.  Want proof?  Had any brownouts, lately?  If your power bill went up recently, it probably didn't have much to do with Enron, either..  Unless, of course, this is the first time your energy costs have gone up in forty years.  No, your bill is bigger for another reason.  The tax and regulatory policies of the Democrats you honestly believe have been fighting to protect you from the crooked big corporate thieves.  (To those who think like this, all corporations are thieves.) 

The absolutely hellish truth about all this is that the best way to keep jobs in America, salaries high, unemployment low and prices reasonable would be to eliminate all corporate taxes.  Every dime.  If you then cut income taxes in half, get rid of the death tax and slash capital gains taxes by 90%, the women who control 70% of the wealth of America would all have their kitchen redone, and money would flow over the land like water over Niagra Falls.

The final irony is that revenues to the government would go up.  That's right. Less taxes means more tax revenues to the government. 

It happens every time.

(LL)