John, I think you need to re-visit the numbers. Isn't the federal tax on corporations applied only to the profits? I do not believe they pay 35% on all revenues, just on profits. So the 35% would not apply to the cost of the car, but the 9% would.
The point is, when a tax is levied against a corporation, that corporation just includes the cost of that tax (and the cost of complying with the tax laws including salary for employee directly employed to comply) in the price of its product or service. Don’t forget the costs incurred to lobby politicians to give certain tax favors, will also ultimately be passed on to consumers. So the customer pays the tax. This applies at any level, and flows all the way to the private citizen who ultimately pays all the taxes. Sometimes it’s a long chain, but all the links are connected, and at the bottom of any product tax chain, is the private citizen customer. So, corporations collect taxes for the government (so that citizens don’t directly see the true cost of govt). It’s just another way the government gets your money! The embedded cost ranges from 22% to 40%, depending on the product and business. Larger Corps have a competitive advantage over small business as they have the political ties to lobby for special considerations under the current tax system. My example was indeed rough, but overall it illustrates the savings. This is the main reason “Jobs are exported”, as its cheaper to comply with the tax codes in China, Pakistan, India and Cananda. As more and more businesses migrate it becomes tougher for US businesses to remain competitive.