That is all well and good but businesses cannot set the price for long unless they are consistent with what the market will bear.
Markets set prices. And they do so without reference to income taxes. Any competent and coherent microeconomic text can explain this to you.
Rep. Bill Archer, Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee:
"A recent survey was done, in Europe and Japan, of the major corporations and I was astounded at the results. They were asked, 'If the US abolished its income tax and went to a sales tax, would that have any impact on your decisions?' Eighty percent of the corporations said they would build their factories in the United States of America. Twenty percent said they would move their international headquarters to the United States of America."
It is obvious to those CEOs that your argument is absurd.
"Markets set prices. And they do so without reference to income taxes."
You obviously don't understand markets at all. Or competition. Markets are made up of all the producers and all the consumers of an item. When any change is made to the production environment -- more efficient production methods, lower material costs, lower labor costs, or lower taxes -- the net effect of the thousands of producers will be to lower prices.
Your argument attempts to predict the success of an individual producer's changes to pricing. That is meaningless. The effect on prices will be the net effect of all producers attempting to maximize their after-tax profit. That means some will fail to achieve profitable pricing, and they will leave the market. The market itself remains with all the other producers.
Your understanding of ROI is also inadequate. Any ROI that is not an AFTER-TAX ROI is meaningless. If anybody has told you differently, then they were probably simplifying for you on the assumption that the tax would be a minor component.
"Markets set prices. And they do so without reference to income taxes. Any competent and coherent microeconomic text can explain this to you."
An equilibrium is formed where the supply and demand curves intersect. The graph compares price to quantity. The higher the price, the higher the supply curve, but the lower the demand curve. Suppliers want to sell for as high a price as possible and will increase production at higher sales prices. Suppliers don't want to sell at a loss, however, and won't produce on a long term basis if market prices don't allow them to meet costs (ALL COSTS) and make at least a small profit. Capital dries up for unprofitable businesses (both debt and equity).
Any competent and coherent microeconomic text can explain this to you.