What a minute. How many companies have bottom line return over 17%? Maybe Goldman Sachs, but not your local grocery store.
Suppose a grocery store sells $10M of stuff. They have expenses of $9M. What's their income? $10M or $1M? If $10M, they have to pay $1.7M in tax, which is greater than their expected income as calculated today.
If a business cannot deduct expenses, this becomes just a sales tax, and not an income tax at all as far as business is concerned.
I do get it. The 1040EZ is simple because wage income is simple. Business 'income' is never simple, unless you define income = gross receipts, which nobody does when talking about income tax.
You’re confusing gross sales with net income. Of course businesses would be allow to deduct operating expenses from gross revenues. The law would recognize the rules as set down by the National Accounting Standards Board. Taxes would be paid on net income.