Thank god, it's satire https://web.archive.org/web/20260515043739/https://www.revsw...
> "Closed a $40M Series B in 11 days. Have not spoken to a customer since 2022."
That gave me a chuckle. Too real.
Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
101–110 of 175 posts
Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The part that makes it not fraud is that both parties do actually do the work. It's far more nuanced than that. If you do the work but undervalue it, it's likely tax fraud. If you do the work but overvalue it, it's likely investor fraud. Even if you fairly value the work it still might be investor fraud. The vendor may have been chosen not by merit, but by its willingness to accept an exchange of services. Saying y…
This isn't a good take. > If you do the work but undervalue it, it's likely tax fraud. A company can value it's services as it chooses. If the work is performed for $1 or $5000 the government doesn't get a say in that. > you do the work but overvalue it, it's likely investor fraud. Quite possibly. Assuming this was done with the intention of misrepresenting your revenue and gaining investment. >The vendor may have be…
> If the work is performed for $1 or $5000 the government doesn't get a say in that
What if you're getting paid in landscaping?
Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The part that makes it not fraud is that both parties do actually do the work. It's far more nuanced than that. If you do the work but undervalue it, it's likely tax fraud. If you do the work but overvalue it, it's likely investor fraud. Even if you fairly value the work it still might be investor fraud. The vendor may have been chosen not by merit, but by its willingness to accept an exchange of services. Saying y…
This isn't a good take. > If you do the work but undervalue it, it's likely tax fraud. A company can value it's services as it chooses. If the work is performed for $1 or $5000 the government doesn't get a say in that. > you do the work but overvalue it, it's likely investor fraud. Quite possibly. Assuming this was done with the intention of misrepresenting your revenue and gaining investment. >The vendor may have be…
Tax law is guilty until proven innocent.
Investor fraud is usually brought as a civil case and takes a balance of evidence approach.
Since enforcement is stochastic and rare these practices are pretty common. The freedom to do ‘whatever’ is really dependent on the discretion of the government and investors. Most companies can and do fly under the radar but have to be careful not to piss off the wrong people.
Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The part that makes it not fraud is that both parties do actually do the work. It's far more nuanced than that. If you do the work but undervalue it, it's likely tax fraud. If you do the work but overvalue it, it's likely investor fraud. Even if you fairly value the work it still might be investor fraud. The vendor may have been chosen not by merit, but by its willingness to accept an exchange of services. Saying y…
This isn't a good take. > If you do the work but undervalue it, it's likely tax fraud. A company can value it's services as it chooses. If the work is performed for $1 or $5000 the government doesn't get a say in that. > you do the work but overvalue it, it's likely investor fraud. Quite possibly. Assuming this was done with the intention of misrepresenting your revenue and gaining investment. >The vendor may have be…
> A company can value it's services as it chooses. If the work is performed for $1 or $5000 the government doesn't get a say in that.
It isn’t that black and white. If you are being paid in cash, you can charge whatever you want, that is true. But if you are exchanging goods or services for other goods or services, the government is going to care how you value that transaction.
Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
VAT is a joke of a tax. It's quite incredible why the government concerns itself with chasing people's accounts around. What a waste. If something can't be monitored with minimal effort, it only serves to enrich the legal/accountancy/hr/admin priest caste. The amount of labour wasted on moving numbers around numbers is staggering. edit: Between the government and businesses, VAT costs 5% in admin fees to raise. In a…
I've multiple times done a minor dive into why a VAT tax is seen as a reasonable tax? It... seems as regressive as a sales tax with even more layers of intervention? I've always eventually lost interest in trying to make sense of it, but they sure seem popular in Europe so there must be something to them? My current belief is that there should really just be a wealth tax on assets (Federal) and a land value tax on la…
Good thing we don't cater society to your beliefs, else it would lead to collapse of the welfare state and cause the needless deaths of tens of millions of Americans.
Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
#106Anyone else getting "SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP"
Has anyone here actually viewed the page? Seems strange that it got upvoted if no one can view the page.
Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
#107Services in kind is a pretty common business practice. You see this a lot at the SMB level especially outside of the US. Small businesses are cash strapped. So you find someone who needs your services and you need their services. Instead of exchanging cash, you exchange invoices and do the work. You build them, say, a $5000 website, they perform, say, $5000 of landscaping. At big boy levels this is often structured a…
The key realization is that it increases expenses at an equal rate as the revenue increase. You get $5000 of revenue but spent $5000 on services. You also have to pay taxes on that $5000 like other revenue. So many small businesses will try to just exchange the services more directly in some way, or give steep discounts. (Tip: This doesn’t mean it’s entirely correct for tax/legal/accounting purposes, so don’t do big…
> You also have to pay taxes on that $5000 like other revenue.
What taxes are owed on revenue? Tou pay taxes on profit only.
Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
#108Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't a good take. > If you do the work but undervalue it, it's likely tax fraud. A company can value it's services as it chooses. If the work is performed for $1 or $5000 the government doesn't get a say in that. > you do the work but overvalue it, it's likely investor fraud. Quite possibly. Assuming this was done with the intention of misrepresenting your revenue and gaining investment. >The vendor may have be…
Tax law is guilty until proven innocent. Investor fraud is usually brought as a civil case and takes a balance of evidence approach. Since enforcement is stochastic and rare these practices are pretty common. The freedom to do ‘whatever’ is really dependent on the discretion of the government and investors. Most companies can and do fly under the radar but have to be careful not to piss off the wrong people.
Okay but then why are we singling this out as tax fraud, if the justification is just "anything can be"? Why not claim that posting on HN is tax fraud?
Re: Trade Dollars with other startups. Book it as revenue
#110Do it among a group of companies to make it more legal, yc way