This is from your articleThe arguments in favor of leaving the corporate income tax alone are politically compelling . For one thing , the tax has a proven ability to raise revenue , an important consideration for a nation that has run chronic budget deficits . For another , the old aphorism that an old tax is a good tax has some validity . Any major change in the tax code changes expectations and imposes new costs and complications during the transition period . But the most compelling rationale for the corporate income tax is the difficulty in assessing its incidence . Since no political constituency sees itself as the primary payer of the tax , none is willing to lobby aggressively for change . Indeed , the art of taxation , as seventeenthcentury French administrator JeanBaptiste Colbert reportedly said , consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing . Judged solely by this standard , the corporate income tax has worked well . You got pwned .