5 ms·

Sorry, Im pretty anti-tax, but this is the mature way to run a software business... I remember starting my career and presenting amortization sheets for softwar

Sorry, Im pretty anti-tax, but this is the mature way to run a software business... I remember starting my career and presenting amortization sheets for software R&D and not a single exec giving a shit, whole industry gave up if you ask me.

p_l 3y ago
Salaries being amortized never made sense
- spacecadet 3y ago
  Please explain then. Because if you spend $2m on an idea, layoff half the company, pivot to a new idea, rehire. You think it's fair on the rest of us you get to write that risk off? This. Is. Why. People. Hate. Tech.
  - brianwawok 3y ago
    I amortize a server because you buy it now, it does work, then is eventually obsolete and you toss it. Does a developer keep doing work for me after he quits/dies?
    - spacecadet 3y ago
      [flagged]
    - atherton33 3y ago
      The code you hired the developer to write/maintain should keep working for you after he quits/dies. Or you made a real bad investment.
      - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
        Do you want hiring people to be considered as an investment? I think that might have a lot of unintended side-effects.
      - renewiltord 3y ago
        With a startup you're running a search function. The code you hired the developer to write often does stop working because you've been forced to pivot as you search for product-market fit.
      - erik_seaberg 3y ago
        If we spend $1M in year one to build a platform, we will surely spend more than $1M in year two maintaining and extending it, and keep doing that until almost the day we finally abandon it. Depreciation might make sense when the actual investment was heavily front-loaded (compared to the revenue) but in our industry it almost never is.
      - brianwawok 3y ago
        Maybe? What if it was a one time manual test harness? What if it was a migration for a new client that has since quit? There is a pretty wide range of tasks a developer can do.
  - p_l 3y ago
    Pretty much everyone else works on the idea that salaries are operational expenses and not subject to amortization. I have yet to see any other case of salaries being turned into Capital Expenses (aka something that requires amortization/depreciation). I'd understand if outsourcing (or otherwise contract work) would be treated as something to be amortized, but we're talking SALARIES.
deleted 3y ago
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p_l 3y ago

Salaries being amortized never made sense

spacecadet 3y ago
Please explain then. Because if you spend $2m on an idea, layoff half the company, pivot to a new idea, rehire. You think it's fair on the rest of us you get to write that risk off? This. Is. Why. People. Hate. Tech.
- brianwawok 3y ago
  I amortize a server because you buy it now, it does work, then is eventually obsolete and you toss it. Does a developer keep doing work for me after he quits/dies?
  - spacecadet 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - atherton33 3y ago
    The code you hired the developer to write/maintain should keep working for you after he quits/dies. Or you made a real bad investment.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
      Do you want hiring people to be considered as an investment? I think that might have a lot of unintended side-effects.
    - renewiltord 3y ago
      With a startup you're running a search function. The code you hired the developer to write often does stop working because you've been forced to pivot as you search for product-market fit.
    - erik_seaberg 3y ago
      If we spend $1M in year one to build a platform, we will surely spend more than $1M in year two maintaining and extending it, and keep doing that until almost the day we finally abandon it. Depreciation might make sense when the actual investment was heavily front-loaded (compared to the revenue) but in our industry it almost never is.
    - brianwawok 3y ago
      Maybe? What if it was a one time manual test harness? What if it was a migration for a new client that has since quit? There is a pretty wide range of tasks a developer can do.
- p_l 3y ago
  Pretty much everyone else works on the idea that salaries are operational expenses and not subject to amortization. I have yet to see any other case of salaries being turned into Capital Expenses (aka something that requires amortization/depreciation). I'd understand if outsourcing (or otherwise contract work) would be treated as something to be amortized, but we're talking SALARIES.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]