Two things that get in the way of "long run" thinking. What's the timeframe that teams should adopt? If it will pay for itself in three years, is that too long

Two things that get in the way of "long run" thinking. What's the timeframe that teams should adopt? If it will pay for itself in three years, is that too long? What's a good argument to make here that will appeal to the bean counters that are used to thinking in terms of quarterlies? I personally am comfortable with "eventually/infinite" but that is a tough sell. Capitalization vs Expense. Maintenance/refactoring is not capitalizable, and thus gets discouraged in businesses that care about P&L. New (capitalizable) projects/features are encouraged instead. What are some good ways to encourage maintenance/refactoring in this kind of environment?