Entries from December 2007 ↓

Do we have a software valuation issue?

December 31st, 2007 · 4 Comments

Soumitra Dutta of French business school Insead thinks so, as reported in this story on CFO.com: Insead has developed a “novel technique” to value software assets. Using conjoint analysis β€” “a time-tested and widely used robust technique in marketing science,” Dutta claims β€” companies can place a value on software by identifying its individual attributes, [...]

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Category: Accounting
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Two types of accountants

December 31st, 2007 · 3 Comments

A theory on the two types of programmers has parallels in the accounting profession: There are two “classes” of programmers in the world of software development: I’m going to call them the 20% and the 80%. The 20% folks are what many would call “alpha” programmers β€” the leaders, trailblazers, trendsetters, the kind of folks [...]

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Category: Profession
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Audits don’t happen randomly

December 29th, 2007 · 9 Comments

Commissioner and chief executive of the Canadian Revenue Agency reminds us in a story in the Financial Post that there are no random audits in Canada. If your tax return is selected for audit, the CRA has identified some aspect of your return, be it a deduction claimed or an industry that it is focusing [...]

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Category: Taxation
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Cigarettes and the complexity of the tax code

December 28th, 2007 · No Comments

Sometimes people wonder why the legislation surrounding various taxes is so complex, given the relatively straight-forward nature of those taxes. The Tax Foundation provides a telling example in a recent post about the definition of a cigarette: Cigarettes are taxed in New Mexico, as everywhere else, and at a pretty hefty rate. As the tax [...]

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Category: Taxation
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Enron chronicle provides some holiday reading

December 27th, 2007 · 5 Comments

I have been on vacation for the last half of this month, and that along with Christmas has resulted in much less activity on this blog than is normally seen. Additionally, I have been immersed in a great book on the Enron scandal, titled β€œThe Smartest Guys In the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous [...]

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Category: Auditing
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