[evanpw]

Unfortunately, taxing gross income instead of profits simply won't work for corporate taxes. The cost of doing business varies wildly between industry, or even between different business models in the same industry. You'd end up putting low-margin industries out of business, and taxing (e.g.) software companies almost nothing.

It's a hard problem that doesn't lend itself to simple solutions.

See: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-07-16/we-don-t-ne...