> Any sensible income tax law will allow you to offset losses against gains. Yes, but losses, gains, revenue, and expenses are not necessarily well-defined. (

> Any sensible income tax law will allow you to offset losses against gains. Yes, but losses, gains, revenue, and expenses are not necessarily well-defined. (Heck - even whom is incurring those things is also variable.) And then there's the big problem - the US govt likes to encourage (and discourage) things via the tax code. GE takes advantage of that as well.