[I_am_tiberius]

> - because losses can be offset against profits. These tend to be middled out over multiple years. You can port losses to other years.

These losses expire (different from country to country)!! Plus, inflation is not taken into account.

> a lot of companies (holdings etc.) don't pay out income tax and are basically just letterbox companies. These companies need to pay tax on dividends otherwise they would literally pay zero tax.

Tax on dividends is not corporate income tax. Dividend tax is classified as capital gains tax, which is entirely separate. My point is that anyone taking out money must pay taxes through personal income tax or dividend tax. So corporate income tax is just money that would be taxed anyway - or invested/used by the company. So no real purpose other than producing another cash inflow for the government.