Support for obsolete products

From: Ward Donald Griffiths III <gram_at_cnct.com>
Date: Fri May 8 20:14:25 1998

John Foust wrote:

> Ward Donald Griffiths III <gram_at_cnct.com> wrote:
> >"Inventory" tax means that for as long as you hold the merchandise,
> >you will continue to be taxed every bloody year unless you bite the
> >bullet and throw the stuff away.
>
> In my understanding of accounting, this "tax" doesn't exist. I think
> the previous writer doesn't understand why the bean counters want to
> get rid of inventory. There are certainly exceptions that rile
> the blood of small- and large-L libertarians, but in my experience
> in US small business, you are only taxed once. A B.C. wants to
> reduce inventory for other reasons - it's money tied up in junk
> that's not selling, not gaining interest, and isn't growing in value.
> When it comes time to dumpster it, it becomes a write-off loss and
> its original cost is probably taken as a deduction of some kind,
> which alone makes it valuable to the bottom line.

There's no federal inventory tax that I know of, but most of the
state governments have them. The biggest tax from a B.C.'s point of
view is generally the cost of warehousing -- rent, property tax,
lack of income from the real estate used to house the merch. And
the B.C.s rule the world when it comes to disposing of the assetts
of former companies that are (if lucky) now divisions in the
acquiring firm. (I'm a small-l libertarian when I'm in a good mood,
(rare lately, it must be age) and a big-A anarchist the rest of the
time (occasionally leaning toward nihilism when my mood gets _real_
bad)).
-- 
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
				Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
Received on Fri May 08 1998 - 20:14:25 BST

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