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"I should point out that there are classes of businesses that do exist somewhat as an exception, certain charities and non-profits"

Not even sure about those. Quite a lot of charities and non-profits set up to fix a problem end up perpetuating it because it is a nice comfortable job.

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I'm pretty confident there's a lot of charities / nonprofits set up as a money laundering and tax dodging scheme.

I mean one of the richest families in NL have their money in a bank that is part of a charity.

Ikea is officially a non-profit, and pays a tax rate of 3.5% because of it

https://www.fastcompany.com/3035734/ikea-is-a-nonprofit-and-...

Technically, Ikea is a Swedish multinational conglomerate whose retail locations are partly associated with a Dutch non-profit "Stichting_INGKA_Foundation" founded by Ikea's founder.

Essentially, Ikea is profitable because it utilizes a tax-avoidance strategy involving the use of a non-profit and so your comment is in my opinion basically true and they are "cheating" a bit. A pretty slick cheat, though.

Also, thank you for shining a light on this as I was ignorant of the whole thing.

It goes beyond that. People create them as their own private tax heaven.

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