You’re not entirely correct. You veered off when you said:
“Companies don’t pay taxes”.
In fact they do. Whether they include it in the advertised price or ring up the tax afterwards it’s all semantics.
Yes, the consumer in the end pays for it along with paying for the cost of manufacturing, cost of advertising and most of manufacturing and for some items, cost of support.
Your two statements help make my point, and your final sentence, about who pays in the end, is exactly what I meant. Whether it's included in the purchase price, or rung up separately at the bottom of the bill, the consumer still pays it. The company just passes it along to the state or locality on its tax forms. It is, in fact, an agent of the state at that point. Funny how that works.