One thing that is not known to everyone and therefore may come as a surprise to some is that corporations (in the US) are taxed on profit, not on income. This is the explanation to the click baity titles like "Amazon paid less tax than you this year!" etc. So any profit a company makes is basically the same as writing a check to the government; more likely, it would be better spent growing the business. Any kind of growth company should have a goal of making close to zero profit.
Roughly but not exactly: public companies can report a profit to their investors while at the same time reporting losses to the IRS (or other government tax authority), because the rules are different and those who know how to exploit those differences are very well paid.
> report a profit to their investors while at the same time reporting losses to the IRS
i wonder how the tax rules and accounting/SEC reporting rules could be tweaked such that the IRS and investors must receive the same level of reporting - aka, if investors see a profit/loss, the taxman must also see the same profit/loss
