> But if I spend that 1 dollar towards the construction of a new factory, I made 0 dollars in net profit You have net profited $1-worth of factory. New assets

> But if I spend that 1 dollar towards the construction of a new factory, I made 0 dollars in net profit You have net profited $1-worth of factory. New assets don't magically stop being profit. Not even if they depreciate, because cash depreciates too. The only thing one needs to ask is whether corporate tax makes sense in principle at all when one could instead "just" tax human use of assets owned by corporations as personal gain. Everything else gets taxed at the personal income or property side already anyway.