If businesses pay more taxes on profit, it's close to the impact of a sales tax. This is because the business ultimately only has money by taking it from custom

If businesses pay more taxes on profit, it's close to the impact of a sales tax. This is because the business ultimately only has money by taking it from customers. You're taxing the money that customers pay to the business. That money is money unavailable for expanding the business - if you want to actually make enough profit to open a new location you'll have to raise your prices. Every successful business thinks the same thing. So everyone raises their prices as a form of implicit collusion to keep their profits at a healthy level. This is equivalent to how a sales tax would operate with minor differences.