I know it's popular to think that companies should pay their fair share, but the reality is that any taxes that are successfully levied on a company are simply passed on to their customers. So really it's all of us who pay those taxes anyway. If Amazon is forced to cough up more taxes they'll just raise prices by that same percent. Except for some sectors like agriculture that can't pass their costs on.
It is not all of us at all, it is all of us who shop there, and only to the degree to which we do so. I for one go out of my way to avoid shopping with Amazon, so not only am I perfectly content to have their prices go up, I actually welcome it because when Amazon pays a lower tax rate they get an unfair advantage over other businesses and I like more choice in the market.
Whether it's all people or some people is relatively immaterial. The fact is *people* pay the taxes in one form or another. So while you're correct that companies are hesitant to raise prices too much to cover taxes, the fact is that tax still has to come from somewhere, meaning from *someone*. I read a study recently that estimated nearly 70% of US corporate tax paid by a company is ultimately borne by the workers of that corporation in the form lowered pay. As you pointed out, companies are hesitant t
Whether it's all people or some people is relatively immaterial
No, it's the entire point. When Amazon dodges tax, everyone else has to pay for it. When they pay tax then their customers have to pay it or their staff have to pay it. Either way it's their choice to shop or work there.
I'm very happy if Amazon goes bust. Whether it's because they have to pay their tax or their staff I really don't care. Other companies manage to do both; if Amazon is so incompetent that it can only survive on subsidies (which is what it's getting now) then fuck 'em.
Actually profit margin doesnt drive prices nearly as much as competition does. Amazon can threaten to raise prices, but if raising prices makes their products cost more than competitors, then they risk losing more money than the shrinking profit margins. Its exacly how mom&pops got squeezed out to bigger stores like walmart. And then how brick&mortars got squeezed by tax free online shopping, etc. Amazon has no choice on its array of cheap chinese knock-offs if places like ebay or Bang Good start of
but the reality is that any taxes that are successfully levied on a company are simply passed on to their customers.
That's not really true, companies have two options: subtract the extra taxes from their profits, or raise prices. Typically they do a mix of both. First they reduce their profits (a lot of times the CxO suite doesn't care, since they get their salary either way, unless they have too much stock).
Later they raise prices to some degree, as everyone else in the industry does the same thing. In a perfect market, if one company raises prices to cover taxes and a second company does not, then everyone will
It's a populist scheme, it riles up the rabble to rant about "fair shares". This problem has an easy solution - fuck corporate taxes for the most part, outside of e.g. land and resource use taxes. Instead, just tax rich people more. Tax stock sales more, tax capital gains more, tax high end real estate more, etc.. It's not hard. Then you're getting the money from a person, and it's a lot easier than getting it from a mega-corp.
But commies gonna commie and it's easy to rile up the rabble against large corpor
You don't understand how taxes works, especially income taxes.
The corporate income taxes are based on the profits of a company. If the company attempts to pass the increase in income taxes on to it's customers to increase it's profit then it's owed income tax goes up because it's profit went up. It is literally impossible for Amazon to "just raise prices" to cover the loss of being required to "cough up more taxes" on the profits Amazon makes because the more profits they make the more they owe.
I know it's popular to think that companies should pay their fair share, but the reality is that any taxes that are successfully levied on a company are simply passed on to their customers. So really it's all of us who pay those taxes anyway. If Amazon is forced to cough up more taxes they'll just raise prices by that same percent. Except for some sectors like agriculture that can't pass their costs on.
That's true for companies that are breaking even, working on razor thin margins. For Amazon, with huge margins and billions of dollars in profit each year, any taxes will almost certainly come out of company coffers or returns that would normally go to shareholders.
Always try to do things in chronological order; it's less confusing that way.
Who actually pays the taxes? (Score:2)
I know it's popular to think that companies should pay their fair share, but the reality is that any taxes that are successfully levied on a company are simply passed on to their customers. So really it's all of us who pay those taxes anyway. If Amazon is forced to cough up more taxes they'll just raise prices by that same percent. Except for some sectors like agriculture that can't pass their costs on.
Re:Who actually pays the taxes? (Score:5, Insightful)
It is not all of us at all, it is all of us who shop there, and only to the degree to which we do so. I for one go out of my way to avoid shopping with Amazon, so not only am I perfectly content to have their prices go up, I actually welcome it because when Amazon pays a lower tax rate they get an unfair advantage over other businesses and I like more choice in the market.
Re: (Score:2)
Whether it's all people or some people is relatively immaterial. The fact is *people* pay the taxes in one form or another. So while you're correct that companies are hesitant to raise prices too much to cover taxes, the fact is that tax still has to come from somewhere, meaning from *someone*. I read a study recently that estimated nearly 70% of US corporate tax paid by a company is ultimately borne by the workers of that corporation in the form lowered pay. As you pointed out, companies are hesitant t
Re: (Score:2)
Whether it's all people or some people is relatively immaterial
No, it's the entire point. When Amazon dodges tax, everyone else has to pay for it. When they pay tax then their customers have to pay it or their staff have to pay it. Either way it's their choice to shop or work there.
I'm very happy if Amazon goes bust. Whether it's because they have to pay their tax or their staff I really don't care. Other companies manage to do both; if Amazon is so incompetent that it can only survive on subsidies (which is what it's getting now) then fuck 'em.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
but the reality is that any taxes that are successfully levied on a company are simply passed on to their customers.
That's not really true, companies have two options: subtract the extra taxes from their profits, or raise prices. Typically they do a mix of both. First they reduce their profits (a lot of times the CxO suite doesn't care, since they get their salary either way, unless they have too much stock).
Later they raise prices to some degree, as everyone else in the industry does the same thing. In a perfect market, if one company raises prices to cover taxes and a second company does not, then everyone will
Re: (Score:2)
It's a populist scheme, it riles up the rabble to rant about "fair shares". This problem has an easy solution - fuck corporate taxes for the most part, outside of e.g. land and resource use taxes. Instead, just tax rich people more. Tax stock sales more, tax capital gains more, tax high end real estate more, etc.. It's not hard. Then you're getting the money from a person, and it's a lot easier than getting it from a mega-corp.
But commies gonna commie and it's easy to rile up the rabble against large corpor
Re: (Score:2)
The corporate income taxes are based on the profits of a company. If the company attempts to pass the increase in income taxes on to it's customers to increase it's profit then it's owed income tax goes up because it's profit went up. It is literally impossible for Amazon to "just raise prices" to cover the loss of being required to "cough up more taxes" on the profits Amazon makes because the more profits they make the more they owe.
Re: (Score:2)
I know it's popular to think that companies should pay their fair share, but the reality is that any taxes that are successfully levied on a company are simply passed on to their customers. So really it's all of us who pay those taxes anyway. If Amazon is forced to cough up more taxes they'll just raise prices by that same percent. Except for some sectors like agriculture that can't pass their costs on.
That's true for companies that are breaking even, working on razor thin margins. For Amazon, with huge margins and billions of dollars in profit each year, any taxes will almost certainly come out of company coffers or returns that would normally go to shareholders.