Gee . . .I didn't know. In my business I added up all the costs .. .
..deducted them from the gross and what was left over after everything else
was the net profit. I always included taxes and the cost of collecting them
on the cost side of the ledger and used the total to figure pricing. I sure
didn't count them as profit. To me thre was no difference between taxes and
UPS or electricity bills.

Just like when the tobacco companies got hit with the big fines and taxes.
Cost of smoking went up. Now what $6 a pack in New York I think. When I
worked for a store and the minimum wage went up the owner automatically
added five percent to everything to cover the increase in costs; e.g.
delivery costs for goods to the store due to automatic increase in Teamster
wages. When the local county added 1/2% sales tax the store retail prices
went up to match.

I've never been in a business where taxes were taken from the profit side.
That's why sales tax is based on gross sales. What we did have to do was
change some other part of the formula. The only things you can change are
Price, Quality and Service. In our case we raised the price but changed the
hours of business to fit time when others were not working and kept quality
at a high level with no change. We also provided more service after the
sale. For example. Buy the software from us and we give classes for
customers at no charge. Buy elsewhere and it's $20 an hour tuition.

I still maintain in the end only the consumer pays taxes. Either as your
customer . .. or the hit you take out of your own disposable income.

But then . . . .I'm not in business anymore.

MST