261–270 of 342 posts
@patio11: may we get a post-mortem on Starfighter, and more details on what you learned about startups?
Perhaps Starfighter failed because the cofounders spent too much time commenting on Hacker News?
A little off topic, but why is this? I don't doubt what he is saying but why is it not good enough to apply for a job via standard channels and not have to be in "the boys club" ?
Patrick writes in the article: > I never thought I could build a Fog Creek, but I saw a bunch of other geeks building Poker Co-pilot and Perfect Table Plan and skeet-shooting scoring software, and I was pretty sure I could at least do something like that. I'm the geek who built (and continues to run) Poker Copilot. Patrick got the order of events backwards. What actually happened is that I started Poker Copilot in a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just reread Accelerando and had forgotten how good it was.
Its the third book in a series of three, are the other two as good? Should I start with them or just skip to the third one?
I don't think so. The book has 3 parts, but it's not part of a series
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Liability protection, if nothing else. If someone sues a company, they can't (in theory) take the CEO's house. Also, in the US, you can save a bunch of money on payroll taxes if you elect to be taxed as an S-corp. The short version is that you only pay those taxes (Social Security, FICA, Medicare, etc etc) on money you get in paychecks -- so, if you make $100k in a year and "pay" yourself $70k, you end up with the ot…
It's probably not a good idea to try to "save money" on your taxes by claiming a low income and distributing yourself whatever's on the balance sheet later on; it's apparently a notorious audit flag. Respectfully: it's also unethical, if you think about it carefully. Pay full freight on your payroll taxes: if you make so much much money that this dodge is material to you, you're the last person who should have a loop…
Still, I totally agree that it's unethical.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's probably not a good idea to try to "save money" on your taxes by claiming a low income and distributing yourself whatever's on the balance sheet later on; it's apparently a notorious audit flag. Respectfully: it's also unethical, if you think about it carefully. Pay full freight on your payroll taxes: if you make so much much money that this dodge is material to you, you're the last person who should have a loop…
Apparently it's pretty safe from an audit standpoint if you pay yourself at least $118,500, the maximum amount that is taxable for Social Security. Of course, that means you just save the 2.9% tax for Medicare on any remaining income. Still, I totally agree that it's unethical.
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What becomes of that other $30k? I assume there's a reason why you wouldn't just pay yourself $30k and keep the tax-free $70k.
It has to sit within the company. You can use it to buy an ice sculpture for the office lobby, but not for your own palazzo. As you can imagine, there is a ton of bookkeeping and bureaucratic pain associated with having an S-corp (like pretending to have annual meetings, and having to write minutes for them).
First time I've seen Atlas. I'm immediately worried. If someone starts a company using this I presume it's subject to US laws? What does this mean: 1. For taxes? If I live in the UK and start my business with Atlas does the US get the corporation tax revenue or the UK (or a split of the two)? 2. For data security/privacy? Is the data I store now subject to access by the US government through National Security letters…
1. Yes the US would get the corporate tax revenue. The company is based in the US even if its employees aren't. You'd pay your taxes to the UK government when you repatriated any of the income from it. 2. Yes because you'd be a US company.
Because a lot of countries have provisions for taxing income of foreign corporations locally if they deem that the corporation is controlled and operated from their country.
My UK accountant did specifically warn me about tax risks around this years ago - I don't remember the specific conditions where it might arise, but you should not take this lightly.
The overwhelming majority of jobs in the technology industry do not go to people who cold apply via jobs pages. This is important for you to know and operationalize. A little off topic, but why is this? I don't doubt what he is saying but why is it not good enough to apply for a job via standard channels and not have to be in "the boys club" ?
The overwhelming majority of jobs in the technology industry do not go to people who cold apply via jobs pages. This is important for you to know and operationalize. A little off topic, but why is this? I don't doubt what he is saying but why is it not good enough to apply for a job via standard channels and not have to be in "the boys club" ?
What goes on the jobs pages is what's left.