[Am-info] Re: MS cashflow/taxes: was MS depositions

[Erick Andrews]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2002 16:49:29 -0500, John J. Urbaniak wrote:

>
>
>Erick Andrews wrote:
>
<snip>

>> It's my understanding that employee stock options can written
>> down for IRS tax purposes but do not have to be shown on the
>> balance sheet for SEC-required reporting.  Therefore, a company
>> so doing looks financially better to their stockholders than they
>> actually are because the liability doesn't show up.
>
>Yes.  It's hard (impossible) to fool the IRS, but it's easy to fool the
>stockholders (and the "analysts").
>
>Microsoft didn't fool the IRS when they said they made no profit and thus are
>liable for no taxes (if indeed, that's what happened).
>

Heh, heh.  Someone told me beaucoup years ago while we were
discussing buying our "island paradise" for retirement...

'All you need to run any country is to have your military might in
one hand and your financial control (e.g., tax revenues) in the other'.

Not much has changed here during the past decade or so with our
"New Economy", and I still think the IRS, substantially, is absolved
of due process when it comes time to collect.

-- 
Erick Andrews