dlo@drutx.UUCP (OlsonDL) (09/18/86)
[] > Of course, this ignores the reality that corporate entities (businesses, >really) ****DON'T PAY TAXES****. Face it, it's true. The cost of taxes paid >by any properly managed business are passed on to the clients or customers of >that business, through higher prices. Thus, taxes may be paid *THROUGH* a >business, but seldom, if ever, are taxes paid *BY* a business. You are correct (at least partly). But, you seem to be saying that a business has the ability to pay taxes without involving people, but that they generally refuse to do so. A business tax *IS* a tax on people, because a business *IS* people -- employees, operators, investors, customers, suppliers, etc. Without them, no business can exist; without them, no taxes can be paid. A business tax is just another tool that Congress uses to convert a business into a vehicle through which the wealth that people supply is paid as tax. It's just that Congress looks good, because it *appears* that they have shifted the tax burden away from people, and it makes businesses look bad because their prices go up, or wages go down, or unemployment goes up, or return on investment goes down. Only people can pay taxes. >tom keller David Olson ..!ihnp4!drutx!dlo "Government is that fiction by which people believe they can live at someone else's expense." -- Frederic Bastiat
orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) (09/19/86)
> A business tax is just another tool that Congress uses to convert a > business into a vehicle through which the wealth that people supply is > paid as tax. It's just that Congress looks good, because it *appears* > that they have shifted the tax burden away from people, and it makes > businesses look bad because their prices go up, or wages go down, or > unemployment goes up, or return on investment goes down. > > Only people can pay taxes. > > David Olson The funny thing is, David, is that corporations are defined as "persons" in the eyes of the law, despite the reality that they obviously are no such thing. Businesses provide the same strain on the infrastructure supplied by the government as ordinary people, if not a greater strain. Thus businesses too strain sewage treatment systems, cause pollution, increase traffic for trucks and business traffic not to mention commuter traffic for people coming and going to work, and so forth. Given that businesses increase this load on the infrastructure why should they be virtually exempt from paying taxes? tim sevener whuxn!orb "The Corporation is that fiction by which the government magically transforms bureaucracies of thousands of people into the legal entity of a "person"" tim sevener
bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) (09/25/86)
Re: Only people (not businesses) can pay taxes (because the cost of
the tax is passed on to the consumer)
I could make the same argument in reverse. I only consider whether my
salary is reasonable based upon what it is after taxes as (basically)
that's all I have to spend.
If taxes were 90% for me I would demand a higher gross salary to
compensate and my boss would probably have to comply if s/he wanted to
keep me or at least attract others. I couldn't just live on 10% of my
salary because to do otherwise would be "unfair", I'd stick it to my
boss (who would stick it to his/her customers who would stick it
to...)
Thus the wheel of economics goes round and round, you can't just take
a snapshot of it in one state and analyze it from that viewpoint.
-Barry Shein, Boston University