I'm sure there's some slippage - didn't Ronald Coase win a Nobel for proving it - but in the grand scheme of things, competitive businesses pass on tax costs, and savings, to customers. Right now, US inflation is being driven in part by protective tariffs. Don't get me wrong; I LOVE protective tariffs when the other guy's advantage comes from abusing its workforce - but we can't have our cake and eat it, too. When we tax businesses, we raise prices.

I don't mind collecting the tax at the corporate level and letting the marketplace sort out who bears the cost. I'm just saying that we can rail about big corporations "not paying their fair share," but in reality, the real taxpayer is always in large part the consumer. After-tax hurdle rates are stubborn things...