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> It's not rational to be excited to write off a discount; yes, it reduces your taxable income, but only because it reduced your actual income. You seem to be

> It's not rational to be excited to write off a discount; yes, it reduces your taxable income, but only because it reduced your actual income. You seem to be approaching this from a purely accounting technicals perspective. My complaints have more to do with the massive distortions that make medical goods/services a very opaque market and creates the ability for profitable businesses to write off fake losses for tax advantages.

toast0 6y ago
> My complaints have more to do with the massive distortions that make medical goods/services a very opaque market I agree it's a mess. I didn't comment on that, because I agree with it. > creates the ability for profitable businesses to write off fake losses for tax advantages I disagree with this part. It's not a fake loss. It's reconciling projected (fake if you want) income with real income. Any business filing taxes with accrual accounting that invoices with full price and accepts a discounted price on payment (or sends to collections at a discount) is going to have the same thing: recognizing the full invoice as income, and then taking a deduction for the discount when settled. Why am I picking on this technical detail? For one, this is a technical forum (I'll show myself out). But importantly, a comment lamenting a real issue (opaque market) and normal accounting practices makes a confusing argument. Switching hospitals to cash accounting isn't going to make the market less opaque.