Precisely. There's this weird belief that "corporations" somehow manufacture money out of thin air, but they don't. They receive money from exactly one place: customers. Then they send it to employees, suppliers, taxes and shareholders. Oh, and if you think the "shareholders" can easily afford to take a little less, well, the biggest shareholders on the planet are pension funds and insurance companies. Simply put, when a company sends more money to government, it has to come from somewhere. So, when it comes to taxing corporations, ALL of the taxes collected are paid by consumers one way or another. The easiest response is a price increase. If that won't work, then it comes from reductions in money paid to employees (job cuts, no raises, they'll think of something) or reductions to suppliers (so their employees take the hit) or reductions to shareholders (great - pensions have less money for retirees and premiums for all forms of insurance have to go up).
It's truly a zero-sum game. The feel-good "corporations must pay their fair share" story is a great way to raise taxes on consumers without having to tell them that's what you're doing.
It's almost as bizarre as the notion that somehow stock buybacks are bad. If a company has a bucket of cash and no good investment opportunities, it buys stock back, giving investors the cash so they can invest it in something new. It creates fresh capital in the stock market to fuel economic expansion. It's a very smart move for the company and the shareholders and from a public interest standpoint, money that's in the hands of a company that can't use it ends up invested in a company that can - job growth, new products, all kinds of good things.
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