Earlier quoted context omitted.
Timescale has nothing to do with this though. You're Starbucks, you sell me a cup of coffee, you make profit from that cup of coffee, you pay taxes on that singular profit. What your companies bank account states is not what I care about as tax collector. The profits you make have nothing to do with the equipment you bought earlier to even start the business. Otherwise you could simply: Buy expensive stuff -> even ou…
What do you mean by "make profit from that cup of coffee"? A cup of coffee is hot bean water in a cup - is profit simply the price Starbucks charges minus the cost of (water + bean + cup)? What about the cost of energy to heat the water? What about the fractional cost of the machine that actually puts the water and beans together to brew the coffee (you could do some sort of analysis based on purchase price / total n…
>Yep, you could do this. Only problem is, uh, you never make any money. If you're running a hobby or something, that's fine, but most people owning business want to realize some profit...
Debt is technically profit in that sense, as long as you can pay it back.