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Milton Friedman on Taxes

The elementary fact is that ‘business’ does not and cannot pay taxes. Only people can pay taxes. Corporate officials may sign the check, but the money that they forward to Internal Revenue comes from the corporation’s employees, customers, or stockholders.
An Economist's Protest: Columns in Political Economy
Book, 1966, p. 86
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  1. That is a widespread myth, that it is possible to spend money with nobody paying for it. You have everybody screaming that we ought to have new, bigger, more generous government programs. Where are we going to raise the money? Tax business. But business corporations can’t pay any taxes. A corporate executive may sign the check, but where does he get the money? From his stockholders or from his customers or from his employees. Unlike the federal government, he doesn’t have a printing press in his basement. So the only way he can pay money to the government is imposing a burden on somebody. Government cannot spend money at nobody’s expense.
    Economic Myths and Public Opinion
    Column, 1976, The Alternative: An American Spectator, vol. 9
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  2. Enforced service by a conscript is a tax imposed on him no less than the check you send to Internal Revenue is a tax imposed on you. The size of his tax is the difference between the sum of money for which he would have served voluntarily and the pay he actually receives. Currently, this tax amounts to about 50 per cent of the potential civilian income of draftees. So unfair a tax imposed on so small a minority would never be passed explicitly by Congress. It persists only because it is hidden.
    The End of the Draft?
    Column, 1970, Newsweek (1970); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, March 20, 1970, p. 8443, introduced by Representative William A. Steiger as one of “two recent articles on the volunteer army which were published in Newsweek.” The bracketed header “[From Newsweek, Mar. 23, 1970]” stands above the Stewart Alsop column printed first; this column carries no date of its own in the reprint, Congressional Record, March 20, 1970, p. 8443
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  3. What does it mean to say that “business” has responsibilities? Only people can have responsibilities. A corporation is an artificial person and in this sense may have artificial responsibilities, but “business” as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities, even in this vague sense.
    A Friedman Doctrine—The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits
    Column, 1970, The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970, Section SM, p. 17
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