Corporate taxes and other taxes on investment constitute double and sometimes triple taxation. That’s more unjust than taxation of labor or consumption. Businesses can’t pay taxes; only people can. But who pays business taxes need bear no relation to whom the lawmakers targeted. The corporate tax has been known to reduce wages and dividends (to retirees of moderate wealth) and indirectly to increase prices to consumers. How’s that help anyone? Capital accumulation is what raises labor productivity and wages. Thus, taxes on capital steal from workers, among others. As economist Roy Cordato writes:

Corporate taxes are hidden and fraudulent. The people who pay them do not know they pay them, and thus such taxes help mask the actual cost of government. If it is true that companies are finding ways to avoid these taxes and less revenue is being generated, then we should cheer those companies on. Ultimately corporate taxes should be abolished. Lovers of big government have no better friend than a tax that everyone thinks someone else pays.