Perfectly Legal

[Gravitymaster 0]

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As a practical matter, business will never "pay" taxes... they increase their prices so that their bottom line isn't affected.

Too bad that Congress can't figure that out...

I wish it was that easy. If that was the truth, then you never as a business owner have to worry about taxes as all you have to do in increase the price. But the consumer has more of a say in how much they want to pay for a product or service. If taxed too much, a company usually looks elsewhere (usually in it's own process) to be able to cut costs rather than raise prices.

Or they may move their business to another country so they can stay competitive.

[mnealtx 0]

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>Suurrrreeee thing, Bill..... whatever you say.

Ah, of course. Your silly numbers example is much better than my silly numbers example. Sorry, I forgot how that works.

Strawman - consumers have no way to recoup the tax assessed on them...businesses do.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[mnealtx 0]

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As a practical matter, business will never "pay" taxes... they increase their prices so that their bottom line isn't affected.

Too bad that Congress can't figure that out...

I wish it was that easy. If that was the truth, then you never as a business owner have to worry about taxes as all you have to do in increase the price. But the consumer has more of a say in how much they want to pay for a product or service. If taxed too much, a company usually looks elsewhere (usually in it's own process) to be able to cut costs rather than raise prices.

Agreed - my response WAS, to an extent, over-simplified.

However, if you think that a business does NOT "pass on" every penny that they can before they cut costs, I have a bridge you may be interested in.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[nanook 1]

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As a practical matter, business will never "pay" taxes... they increase their prices so that their bottom line isn't affected.

Too bad that Congress can't figure that out...

I wish it was that easy. If that was the truth, then you never as a business owner have to worry about taxes as all you have to do in increase the price. But the consumer has more of a say in how much they want to pay for a product or service. If taxed too much, a company usually looks elsewhere (usually in it's own process) to be able to cut costs rather than raise prices.

Or they may move their business to another country so they can stay competitive.

Yup. Same thing.

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"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[nanook 1]

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However, if you think that a business does NOT "pass on" every penny that they can before they cut costs, I have a bridge you may be interested in.

companies are usually already "costs passed on to customers " to their max as the nature of competition. The increase of taxes usually has them scrambling to make production cuts within.

_____________________________

"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[billvon 3,078]

>consumers have no way to recoup the tax assessed on them...businesses do.

People can get a better paying job and cut down on expenses as easily as businesses can raise prices and cut down on _their_ expenses.

Sure, no one may hire those people if they demand more money. And sure, no one may buy the company's products if they raise prices. Which is where both analogies fail.

Some people have this impression of companies as these massive ultra-powerful conglomerates, where a CEO picks up a phone on the armrest of his throne and says "Raise prices! Those helpless customers of ours will pay any price we ask!"

In the real world, of course, people will NOT pay any price a company asks. Raise the price on orange juice and people will buy grapefruit juice instead. Raise the price on Wonderbread and they'll go to their local bakery. Raise the price on all breads and you'll see sales slump, while the yeast and breadmaker companies will make a killing.

Which is why you have to be very careful with any taxation scheme to not reap all the unexpected consequences you have sown with the implicit favoritism any differential tax scheme imposes. In some cases, there may well be a societal good from causing prices to go up (and thus sales to go down) such as taxes on things like cigarettes, alcohol or gambling winnings. But to claim that any company can merely raise prices and see no negative effects is simply untrue. (Or, more accurately, is as true as saying people can do the same.)

[nathaniel 0]

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But to claim that any company can merely raise prices and see no negative effects is simply untrue.

QFT

If it was that easy, companies would have raised prices and increased profits without waiting for Congress to act.

My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

[shortyj 0]

How about NO income tax! Thats what I want. They can't seem to "make ends meet" with the money we give them.

Playtime is essential.

[billvon 3,078]

> How about NO income tax!

To have no income tax you have to stop spending money FIRST and stop taxes SECOND. Problem is, once you do that, people start screaming about it. Fix the roads! Give our troops more armor! Help the poor veterans! My child is 18 years old and can't read! That farmer lost his farm! I'm scared of terrorists! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

We've been "doing something about it" for 200 years now, and all that doing costs money. Even so, we are paying less than we spend - so in a very real sense, you are getting more than your money's worth.