"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:ANB_c.122971$Fg5.92285@attbi_s53...
Their customers have to pay for it. No business really pays a tax,
ultimately
all taxes (including FICA and Personal income) wind up buried in the cost
of
goods and services.

It is fascinating to me how few people truly understand this basic law of
economics.

But it is not the only "law" of economics. Think it through further.
Unless the business is a monopoly AND they provide a product or service for
which there is no alternative, the demand for their product or service
depends very much on their price (the elasticity is less if those conditions
are met). This means several things. They still have to make the
determination of how much profit to build in to their price, as the more
profit, the higher their price, and the less they will sell. They will want
to maximize profit which is not necessarily maximum production. Going
further, and especially in this context, if one particular production method
is taxed there may be alternative production methods which are less taxed
and may represent a greater profit opportunity.

The result is that taxes most definitely DO affect businesses, and since
they cannot pass along all additional expenses to their customers, part of
the tax decreases their profit and so effectively the business owners DO pay
taxes (separate from their personal income taxes, that is).