Sure, but you might not want to reinvest everything today, or within the same tax year, or perhaps you can't tax depreciate an entire property in the same year,

Sure, but you might not want to reinvest everything today, or within the same tax year, or perhaps you can't tax depreciate an entire property in the same year, etc. Acquisitions of stock (i.e. when acquiring competitors) can't also generally be offset against corporate tax. There will always be some 'leakage' and taxes to be paid. Non-profits are generally exempt from all corporate taxes. If you don't care about putting profits in your pocket, they tend to be very tax efficient. In the case of Ikea, a royalty on all sales (for use of the brand name) is paid to a low taxed for-profit entity. That's how he made his money. The larger the empire, the more royalties he gets, so the structure does make some sense. Not as perfect as running a pure for-profit entity, but probably one of the most tax efficient.