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by ceterum_censeo 3517 days ago
Nice find, that helps. My reading is that it's slightly more than an artifact: Tesla is guaranteeing a residual, so the sale to the bank is conditional and so cannot be recorded as a simple sale.

GAAP strikes me as a set of things that, alone, are good intentions but combined are more confusing than they need to be.

2 comments

>GAAP strikes me as a set of things that, alone, are good intentions but combined are more confusing than they need to be.

That's probably reasonably accurate. GAAP is intended to prevent various accounting reporting practices that, historically, were sometimes used to obscure material aspects of a company's financial position. However, GAAP numbers may also present a company's numbers in ways that aren't the most meaningful or "fair"--at least in the eyes of the company. That's one reason that companies often present both GAAP and non-GAAP results.

Makes sense. And thanks for your persistent questioning, I learned some new stuff!
Thanks for your patience :) I learned some new stuff too!