The IRS Hits Symantec with a $1 Billion Tax Bill

GnoWay writes "Macworld is reporting that the IRS has charged Symantec Corporation with about a 900 million dollar tax bill due to the charge that Symantec and Veritas (purchased by Symantec last year) under-reported the value of intellectual property which they had transferred to their two Irish subsidiaries. Another $100 million is connected to Symantec's 2003 and 2004 reports."

taxing IP

[bbsguru]

I just had a thought. Do I owe anything?

It's okay.

[Rob T Firefly]

Luckily, Norton Internet Security filtered out the IRS' notice before anyone at Symantec could read it. I won't tell if you won't...

Unrelated

[liliafan]

In unrelated news, the IRS has reported sudden loss of all their backups, and serious infection from computer viruses.

What's "intellectual property"

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that like a smart building?

Re:taxing IP

[Anonymous Coward]

under-reported the value of intellectual property

I doubt it, hell, you might need a rebate

If I were them

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd call one of those tax-help agencies. They can usually settle for pennies on the dollar.

Dependents

[LiLWiP]

Luckily, Symantec can claim the millions/billions who use their live update as dependents, so this will really only end up being like a $20 tax bill when they are done filing. Thank GOD for TurboTax.

Re:Ouch...will they sell off Norton?

[badmammajamma]

Actually that's small potatoes too. The big money is in porn.

$1 Billion Tax Collection

[digitaldc]

Great! This money will be well spent by Congress, oh wait....
it is already gone, what a shame, before I could even finish my congratulations.

Not suprising

[ejaw5]

Symantec probably hired H&R Block to do their taxes this year.

Re:taxing IP

[Enzo the Baker]

Depends on whether it's your two cents' worth, or someone is giving a penny for your thoughts.

Re:New Tax Policy

[TykeClone]

Fortunatly, lobotomies are now tax deductable.

But only the expense from them that are greater than 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income - and only if you are itemizing your deductions anyway.

Re:Ouch...will they sell off Norton?

[Tackhead]

> Actually that's small potatoes too. The big money is in porn.

If a $900M bill from the IRS doesn't count as getting fucked, I don't know what does.

Re:Thanks IRS - way to bring down the market

[Anonymous Coward]

I went to high school with a Roland Blackout. Do you think it's the same one?

Re:Learn from this...

[Megane]

Did they tell you about this before you left?

http://www.madchat.org/vxdevl/vxmisc/Symantec_Revo lution.mp3 [madchat.org]

Re:Valueing intellectual property?

[Buzz_Litebeer]

You miss the point entirely, I am worth 100 an hour or 150 an hour, depending on what I am doing. Though I only get a small chunk of that.

BUT, what if I decided to sell the thing for 10 bucks, after I put 800 worth into it, is it worth 10 bucks or 800, am I selling it under market value or am I actually worth the 800 I WANT to be paid for it?

IF I make a Hello World Application, and my time is worth 100 an hour, does my hello world app cost 100 dollars because I bill a minimum of an hour?

Or is it worth essentially nothing?

Thats the question, who determines the price, if Symantic wanted to licence it for free, would it then not be worth "free"? Or is it worth what a competitor would have paid to bring it in house or an actual client.

I hope I am not obsfucating this more lol.

RIAA have learnt their lesson

[MarkByers]

charging $750 for copying one song.

So they finally they gave in to public pressure and reduced their prices.

Re:Unrelated

[tehshen]

Oh come on, I know what you're getting at, and it's wrong. There's no way that Norton Internet Security could prevent serious infection from computer viruses.

Re:Ouch...will they sell off Norton?

[Artifex33]

The 200 million people having trouble sitting down today would agree with that.

Charging money for ideas? Posh!

[FellowConspirator]

In response, I'd probably tell the IRS the truth: "Intellectual Property" is a marketing term not a tangible asset. US law does not recognize the concept (yet). In so far as "Intellectual Property" is a convenient fiction, the IRS has no authority to levy taxes on fictional assets.

The "value" of information ("intellectual property") depends on the the buyer. In fact, the value of the information that they are being assessed $900 million in taxes for is $0 to me. In fact, on average, it's likely to be $0 for most people (outside of the possibility that you're bound to find some idiot that will pay gobs of money for it).

Symantec Press Release

[Anonymous Coward]

Due to an unexpected increase in tax liabilities, Symantec is announcing that Norton Antivirus products will no longer scan email sent to any .gov domain for viruses and worms. This change has the effect of leaving all government email systems open to such attacks, while at the same time reducing the value of Symantec's own intellectual property. This change in IP value will reduce the chances of unexpected tax liabilities in the future due to its reduced IP asset value as well as the Internal Revenue Services ability to generate and email any notice of such delinquency.