What does it mean to "keep" the software? You can return the installation media, and say you erased the program, without having erased it. I would say that if you work for Microsoft and they give you a program free in order to test, then it's not a form of income. The program doesn't represent monetary value in that situation. Microsoft, the copyright holder, is licensing you to have a copy of that program under term…
Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
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Re: Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
#12Huh. I would argue that the software remained the property of Microsoft, and so there were no tax consequences. Presumably if the Windows 95 development manager said, a year later, "Hey guys, time to give all that stuff back," they would. It's just that nobody asked for it.
I would view it similar to letting people pick through your ewaste trash. It might have value but the company has written it off.
Re: Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
#13Wait, they managed to get Wing Commander 3 working on Windows 95?? > Bonus chatter: During one of the many iterations of this story being retold, someone remarked that they got a copy of the video game Wing Commander III through this exercise. I immediately remembered that they fulfilled their expectation by filing a bug against Windows 95: When you earned the cloaking device on level 58 or something, you couldn’t ac…
Re: Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
#14Huh. I would argue that the software remained the property of Microsoft, and so there were no tax consequences. Presumably if the Windows 95 development manager said, a year later, "Hey guys, time to give all that stuff back," they would. It's just that nobody asked for it.
Re: Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
#15What does it mean to "keep" the software? You can return the installation media, and say you erased the program, without having erased it. I would say that if you work for Microsoft and they give you a program free in order to test, then it's not a form of income. The program doesn't represent monetary value in that situation. Microsoft, the copyright holder, is licensing you to have a copy of that program under term…
That definition definitely doesn’t pass muster. You can gift employees Spotify accounts, in their name. Not resellable, definitely a gift.
Re: Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
#16What if it's not your employer? If you buy a pizza for $25 and get another one free, is that also $25 income that is only exempt due to de minimis ?
Gifts are taxable when they accumulate to a certain size.
Re: Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
#17What if it's not your employer? If you buy a pizza for $25 and get another one free, is that also $25 income that is only exempt due to de minimis ?
Re: Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
#18What does it mean to "keep" the software? You can return the installation media, and say you erased the program, without having erased it. I would say that if you work for Microsoft and they give you a program free in order to test, then it's not a form of income. The program doesn't represent monetary value in that situation. Microsoft, the copyright holder, is licensing you to have a copy of that program under term…
Nope. The entire point of this was testing third-party off-the-shelf software.
Re: Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
#19What if it's not your employer? If you buy a pizza for $25 and get another one free, is that also $25 income that is only exempt due to de minimis ?
Yes. Gifts are taxable when they accumulate to a certain size.
In the US, gifts may be due taxes by the giver, not the recipient.
In the above case, the question was if it was a gift (and not needed to be paid taxes for by the recipients), or payment for work (which is taxed)
Re: Tax consequences of WIN95 team members keeping a piece of software for testing
#20What if it's not your employer? If you buy a pizza for $25 and get another one free, is that also $25 income that is only exempt due to de minimis ?
If it is your employer giving you the pizza, there is a different story. I can't tell you how it would work in USA, but I'll tell you how it would work in Sweden. In a few cases, which include you being an employee of United Nations, you wouldn't pay taxes on the pizza (hurray!). But if you don't qualify for the exceptions, your employer would have to account for the $25 as if it were salary and tax it accordingly. Just for amusement purposes I've computed that for you: 33% in income tax, 31.4% in payroll tax, 20% in state tax if you earn over $4500/month, and 12% in VAT (but that one your employer gets to zero in this particular example). The 31.4% is not subtracted from your payout but just paid by your employer (or yourself, if you are self-employed). All in all, you eat your free pizza worth $25 and your employer deducts from your salary $13.3 to pay in taxes, and in addition to that pays $8 in payroll taxes. That gives the tax office a neat $21 for that $25 pizza you ate for "free". Your employer also has to pay for the pizza, of course, but they can deduce whatever VAT was in its price.