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by analog31 1165 days ago
But aren't you deriving value from what they developed in the first year? I mean, maybe that's my mistake.

If they spent a million, made a million, and are now back to square one, it would make more sense to not amortize the investment because it's not an investment.

1 comments

Yes, but according to this law you're not allowed to do that; you have to amortize it over five years.
That seems to be the rub. It doesn't differentiate between different reasons and business models for writing software: Software as wealth, and software as pure expense.

It's also pretty harsh on a business that's just plain unprofitable. The laws should be arranged so that if you start a business and it's a flop, but you have no debts, you can walk away pretty much unscathed.