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

[Glenn T. Livezey, Ph.D.]

>Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 16:49:29 -0500
>From: "John J. Urbaniak" <jjurban@attglobal.net>
>To: Erick Andrews <eandrews@star.net>
>Subject: Re: [Am-info] Re: MS cashflow/taxes: was MS depositions
>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). 

I'm afraid you missed the point entirely. The IRS may certainly know
exactly what Microsoft is doing, but if its legal they have to abide
by the code for which the industry lobbyists paid princely sums (not 
as much as it saved them in taxes, but still a pile).

>So their revenues are offset by their expenses, which is what I said 
>before. In other words, they made NOTHING.

You can't be serious. They get to write off the retail of a copy of
software that 'cost' them pennies to replicate. Do that enough times
and you are talking serious money. Same with stock options in leu of 
cash. A certificate of stock is worth whatever they can convince the
traders its worth that day. And we all know it is hyperinflated in
price. So again, they write off an inflated value, that for tax 
purposes 'offsets' real cash money income. What this MEANS is they 
don't pay taxes. It does NOT MEAN they 'made NOTHING'.

You think Bill builds and maintains his palace on credit?

And as for Enron closing any loopholes... I think what it has 
more effectively done is make company stock options a whole lot
less attractive for most mid-to-low level employees who'd rather
hold out for real money - even less real money. And that makes the
companies who are most vulnerable, the ones using this to save big 
time on labor costs, even shakier. 
You can bet your ass that whenever congress closes one loophole it 
opens two more elsewhere, so, the same basic wage earner will go on 
paying all the bills.


Glenn
-- 
Glenn T. Livezey, Ph.D.

University of Minnesota
Neuroscience Department
Room 6-145 Jackson Hall
321 Church St. S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455

(612) 624-2991 FAX 6-5009 
glivezey@lenti.med.umn.edu
livezey@bigfoot.com

"It's call 'Linux poker.' Everyone gets to see everyone else's cards,
everything is wild, you can play off your opponents hands, and
everyone wins except Bill Gates, whose face appears on the jokers."
>From "The 5th Wave" by Rich Tennant, published Monday 2/18/02