A tax against a corporation is not payable by shareholders.Shareholders share profits and losses. Who pays?
The corporation didn't pay the tax on their profits. The unpaid taxes became profits. The shareholders benefitted from the profits.
They can't raise the prices to cover the tax owed (not that that ever works) the corporation doesn't exist.
It’s unbelievable that I’d be defending AOC on this, but from what I understand this particular state corporate tax in NY has nothing to do with corporate income. It’s more like a fee than a tax, and it’s imposed on NY corporations regardless of how much revenue they have. AOC never paid the tax because her publishing company was a failure from the start and never generated much (if any) revenue.