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OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

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Re: OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’ Ah, well in that case, it's clear to me Austria is actually the one on the brink of fascism. It's clear to me, having extensively eaten a lot of strudel (makes me an expert in Austria), that it's now a fascist country. And if you say: ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’ then clearly you're just in denial.

You've lost me. I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, could you rephrase your point in a more coherent way please? But also, yes, Austria was on the brink of fascism not too long ago. Our far-right party almost got to form a government and their plans were quite sinister. Thankfully, disaster was averted due to egos and greed - the far-right and center-right couldn't agree on who gets to pilfer to country more…

This argument has a problem:

> They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’

It provides no way to distinguish between when the thing is happening and when it isn't. If people say you're an alarmist, by what mechanism do you evaluate whether they're correct?

Re: OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

#212
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah people have been offshoring then onshoring once they realize offshoring sucks since at least the 90s. I remember my dad, who was also a software dev, complaining about it 20 years ago. It always swings back. The network effect in huge hubs like SF and NYC is massive.

I’ve been a part of the entire arc of offshored teams since the trend started in the late 90’s early 00’s. I’ve never seen it work. The primary issue is and always has been time zone related. While it doesn’t show to an accountant we do live on a sphere and there are implications to everyone. The solution is always to find some self contained effort for the remote centers but it never works because the entire company…

One of the most insightful comments I've seen on this site.

Re: OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

#214
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This ignores the other financial and non-financial costs of offshoring: legal, cultural, temporal... a lot of the time, those close the gap. On paper, offshoring has made sense the entire time, and yet here we are in 2025 and companies still hire American devs. Not only that, they often fly in foreign devs just to pay them more here than if they had just offshored to their home country.

I have approx. 15 years of experience working remotely for various companies all across the globe and was always an advocate of thesis that remote work is difficult and most people aren’t cut for it and (to horror of many proponents) and on average are less efficient than on-site hires. There are many reasons: It’s difficult to understand _intention_ when deprived of non-verbal communication and working in a choppy n…

A lot of companies just suck at it too. "Here's Slack, figure it out" seems to be a common approach. In person you can pester the person next to you when you're new, overhear conversations, etc. but remote it is MUCH harder to ascertain the culture, Slack etiquette, etc (my favourite was "people write in Slack all the time, in public, even to themselves, it's your job to mute Slack when you need focus, and don't use DM's unless you really need the privacy"), but I have only seen this done very well in one place - Auth0 (pour one out :-( ) . Maybe because it started remote with founders thousands of KM apart.

Re: OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

#215
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah people have been offshoring then onshoring once they realize offshoring sucks since at least the 90s. I remember my dad, who was also a software dev, complaining about it 20 years ago. It always swings back. The network effect in huge hubs like SF and NYC is massive.

I’ve been a part of the entire arc of offshored teams since the trend started in the late 90’s early 00’s. I’ve never seen it work. The primary issue is and always has been time zone related. While it doesn’t show to an accountant we do live on a sphere and there are implications to everyone. The solution is always to find some self contained effort for the remote centers but it never works because the entire company…

It seems like more American companies are noticing that Latin America has lots of intelligent, clever people who produce good work, and cost less. I have worked with a lot of Argentinians and really enjoyed it.

I'm in Europe now and it definitely is easier to set up calls with my South African colleagues than the American ones.

Re: OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

#216
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not convinced. Offshore has been possible since forever. Maybe IC cam be remote now. Your team can be global. US lead, 2 India based devs, 2 brazil devs. But not having this wasn't a blocker for saving money. 10, 100 or 500 people team in India who could work in the office together was possible forever. It will change. I think once other countries become bigger investment centres. Not sure how yet though. US is a goo…

Yeah, there's simply a lot of 'Muricans thinking programming and software dev. for some reason only can be done inside of the US. As a EU senior dev I know zero senior devs making six figures pa - Go figure

It's not the heady days of 2022 but six figures shouldn't be impossible for someone with 10+ years of experience. But the trick is to (mostly) ignore the European companies and go for the American ones operating in Europe. Switzerland, Norway, and Ireland can be decent too.

I'm still stunned when I see what devs are paid in Germany and southern Europe though.

Re: OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

#217
post #84

Meanwhile, in Canada, not only can you expense R&D, but there is a cashable tax refund that will give you back about 60% of your developers’ salaries…

Meanwhile in one of the world's higest taxed welfare states, where you absolutely can deduct 100% of SW developer salaries I feel I've been taking crazy pills every time reading these threads. It's almost as if some folks in """Hacker""" News wanted this law to stay to further cement gigantic incumbents and make it impossible for bootstrapped companies to compete.

Re: OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've lost me. I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, could you rephrase your point in a more coherent way please? But also, yes, Austria was on the brink of fascism not too long ago. Our far-right party almost got to form a government and their plans were quite sinister. Thankfully, disaster was averted due to egos and greed - the far-right and center-right couldn't agree on who gets to pilfer to country more…

This argument has a problem: > They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’ It provides no way to distinguish between when the thing is happening and when it isn't. If people say you're an alarmist, by what mechanism do you evaluate whether they're correct?

And that is exactly the mechanism through which fascist regimes keep resistance down and dissenters in a state of self-doubt.

People like the guy accusing me of being "hyper-propagandized" knowingly weaponize this uncertainty to become willing enablers.

Re: OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've lost me. I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, could you rephrase your point in a more coherent way please? But also, yes, Austria was on the brink of fascism not too long ago. Our far-right party almost got to form a government and their plans were quite sinister. Thankfully, disaster was averted due to egos and greed - the far-right and center-right couldn't agree on who gets to pilfer to country more…

Your entire argument boils to the fact that you live in Austria and that makes you an expert on fascism and if anyone tries to refute you then it immediately means they're in denial. Which is, of course, non-sensical.

Italian here, and I know a few things about fascism not just because of that. Yes, what is happening in the US is the rise of a fascist state controlled by a small minority of very wealthy and powerful people purely for economical reasons with Trump being just a tool in their hands. As with happened in my country back then, there are only two possible reasons for endorsing it: being part of the cult, or being part of the club. That's why I stopped long ago any attempt at reasoning with apologists.

Re: OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D

#220
I'm not really that into US politics, but to me this bill seems like a gargantuan transfer of wealth to already wealthy people. How does this land with the people who voted for Trump outside of the traditional republicans? Can they finance it without raising the debt ceiling?
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