[newzisgud]

Who 'pockets' the profits is not relevant. Fact is corporations exist to generate profit, and they will do anything to protect those profits - including using any loophole, accounting process, business model, or pricing strategy to protect said profits.

A simple/common form of this subversion is giving the c-suite ungodly salaries such that there are no profits, on the books at least, to be taxed. In that case, and basically all others, the customer is paying the corporate tax because the corporation has shifted all burdens (including tax) away from the protected profit.

[fzeroracer]

Who pockets the profit is absolutely relevant because you are arguing that companies externalize all costs and pass them onto the consumer/employee.

In a world you imagine where there are 0 taxes on corporations, how do you punish said corporation for malicious behavior or actions? Because by similar logic, any monetary punishment is useless and results in them simply passing it down. Do you punish the people working there? Who do you choose to punish, especially if the people responsible are gone and dead?

[newzisgud]

If profit is always protected, it really doesn't matter where it ends up going - the fact that profit is protected means that it is an expense passed to the consumer (and employees in the form of low compensation). If anything, like costs, safety, regulation, or even taxes threaten profit, the corporation will re-arrange itself to protect the profit - and everyone else pays for that.

I never imagined a world where there were 0 taxes on corporations. I just said that corporate tax is effectively an individual tax because it never comes out of profit.

You then argue that monetary punishments must behave the same way. They do. Any cost to the company, even when it is monetary or some court judgement, is passed on to the consumer (or the worker, in the form of lower compensation). When was the last time you heard of a monetary fee or judgement causing a company to shut down?

Every company in existence pays corporate insurance specifically to pay out if they have a judgement against them. That insurance premium does not come out of profit. It's a cost, that's passed on to the customer, exactly like any other cost. Profit is always protected.