Can you elaborate? As a business owner in the U.S. I can opt to reinvest all revenue back into the business, thus would show zero net profit but (presumably) increase my company’s value. (And remember there are other taxes and fees paid to various governments, not just tax on income/profit, so it’s not typically like nothing gets paid.)

You can't reclassify profit as reinvestment to show zero net profit. (If you could every business would have an internal hedge fund or private equity business and would show zero net profit).

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/know-the-difference-between-a-h...

>As a business owner in the U.S. I can opt to reinvest all revenue back into the business,

Not entirely, no. Any of those reinvestments that count as capital expenditures aren't immediately deductible, but only on a throttled schedule, which is why the concept of depreciation exists in tax law:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15061439

As a business owner, if you provide labor to the business, you have to pay yourself a salary.