We need to understand that Corporations Do Not Pay Taxes – They collect taxes.  Think about it – for a corporation taxes are like any other cost and are reflected in the cost of their product or service.  In addition there is the substantial cost of understanding and complying with the current totally unintelligible tax code.  Just think of the amount of time we as individuals invest in tax compliance and expand that to a large corporation with all of those moving parts.  So when we hear that our elected representatives are contemplating raising corporate taxes it is in essence an increase in our cost of living as the corporations have to raise the cost of whatever they sell to recoup this additional cost.

In the same vein, when someone does not pay their credit card bill, the bank does not take that loss.  The banks fees and interest charges are set so that the bank can take the loss and maintain profitability.  And where do they get the dollars to absorb those losses – You guessed it from those of us that pay our bills on time.  Think about it – if someone does not pay their balance they also do not pay any fees or interest.

So when you see or hear about corporate taxes or bank credit card losses keep these comments in mind.