WHO Pays The Tax?
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (112717)
United States
August 4, 2018 1:32pm CST
Sometimes it makes me laugh when I hear people cheering for higher taxes for corporations. The reason? Because companies do not really pay taxes. You and I pay those taxes when we buy their stuff.
Corporations do not pay taxes. They collect them.
That is an important thing to keep in mind. Look, when I was a landlord, if the cost of my taxes went up, if the cost of my water bill went up, if the cost of my maintenance went up...
I raised the rent.
All of the costs of running the business are built in—including taxes. Margins, which are essentially profits, are also pre-calculated. If a company desires to get an 8% margin, no matter what costs are attached to the production or sale of the goods, be they taxes or higher wages or additional benefits, the company will simply add those costs onto the final price. They will still get their 8%, and you will pay more for whatever you buy.
Tax the corporations all you want to. You and I pay for it. Offer fast food workers $15 an hour. Fine. You and I will pay for it. The money has to come from somewhere, and a company will not allow itself to go broke based on costs.
Just something to keep in mind.
6 people like this
5 responses
@porwest (112717)
• United States
4 Aug 18
But many people still will. And of course, it's not just fast food workers who want the $15. It's all sorts of retail and restaurant workers. And then of course you not only pay more for your food essentially, but the workers get replaced with self checkout, kiosks, and other means—nobody really ever gets the $15. 
They either lose their job or everything costs more eating up the difference and they are right back where they started.
They either lose their job or everything costs more eating up the difference and they are right back where they started.3 people like this
@porwest (112717)
• United States
4 Aug 18
@NJChicaa Me too. I don't mind a person making an honest wage. But I do also agree that some jobs are only worth a CERTAIN wage. Right now we have a choice. Use a kiosk or don't. Self checkout or use a cashier. But there may come a time when we no longer do, so it's a balance. Companies should pay what a job is reasonably worth, workers should expect the job they do pays so much, and if they do not like their wage, they have the option of choosing a profession that pays better. Most of these types of jobs were never intended to be careers anyway, but that's another story, and I have quite a lot of ideas about that—some of which may surprise you. 
2 people like this
@Shellyann36 (11383)
• United States
8 Aug 18
Large companies are not going to take a cut on anything. The payraise hike will end up just like the health care bill where every employer had to offer insurance to workers. The workers hours will get cut back and they will not be full time. While at the same time we will still pay more.
1 person likes this
@Shellyann36 (11383)
• United States
11 Aug 18
@porwest I knew several people during the health care war who were full time at one job and then all of a sudden cut back to part-time hours and had to struggle to find other means of employment to make up for those hours and it really put a hurt on their income and caused lots of financial problems for them.
1 person likes this
@porwest (112717)
• United States
12 Aug 18
@Shellyann36 The left always has good intention when they come up with an idea that is supposed to artificially prop up someone's life. It never works, people lose out, and it's a shame that it happens. No one gains a thing by being given something they did not earn.
1 person likes this
@porwest (112717)
• United States
11 Aug 18
That is exactly it. And part of the problem is that when you look at the balance sheets you quickly realize that the companies do not actually have the money—which is part of the reason for the cuts etc. Take McDonalds who employs about 1.9 million workers. It's easy to say, hey, give them just a dollar more an hour. But if the average employee works about 20 hours a week that's a cost of $38 million a week, or nearly $2 billion a year. People simply look at the numbers but don't look at the real math and make all kinds of assumptions that companies are just raking in way more than they actually are.
1 person likes this
@KrauseHome (36445)
• United States
5 Aug 18
So true, and we have seen that here in the Seattle area. The people are so Tax happy it hurts. The apartment rents are rediculous and since everything continues to rise so do the rents, I get a laugh from a friend of mine who was telling me since her son is living with them, and her rent went like $300 up since he moved in... He found a place he is saving up for, but it will be a yr before he has enough saved up to move in. I was like does she not realize the way eveything is going up so fast, $1000 a month is quite reasonable for a place. By next yr at this rate he is lucky if he can find anything for $1300 not counting everything.
1 person likes this
@porwest (112717)
• United States
21 Feb 23
I think a lot of people don't really have any real concept of what things cost. Not just in terms of what they pay. But in terms of what things cost for the people whom they pay.
When I was a landlord my tenants would tell me to enjoy my steak dinner when they handed me my rent. Little did they know that after I paid the mortgage, the insurance, the property taxes, and funded the vacancy and maintenance accounts...
There was very little profit.
@porwest (112717)
• United States
6 Aug 18
Still, when you do the math, the money is simply not there. I know it looks like it is. But it isn't, and so the only alternative is to raise the prices on everything. And it's not even the bigger companies like McDonald's that get hurt as badly. It's the small business owner who gets hammered big time, and since small business accounts for about 70% of all jobs, more jobs get lost when wages are artificially increased.
1 person likes this
@porwest (112717)
• United States
18 Apr 22
Most people don't, and that is part of the problem when they foolishly listen to a politician who says he will stick it to the man and then vote for him. We pay every single cent of every single tax paid by a corporation and not a penny lower.
A tax on the rich is a tax on you and I. Every single time. Always and forever.
