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this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024
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Fines are not tax deductible. So no it’s not a cost of doing business.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/102915/are-irs-penalties-tax-deductible.asp#:~:text=Fines%20and%20penalties%20a%20person,federal%20laws%20are%20never%20deductible.
The conversational phrase "cost of doing business" does not mean the same thing as the tax law phrase "business expense".
Write off means write off the books. Otherwise it makes no sense as that the dictionary term for the phrase. You can’t write off a fine. It isn’t “written off”.
Real the whole paragraph. It’s idiotic talk
"Write off" has evolved to have an additional, more casual meaning, and I think it was clear to most of us that the author you're referring to was using it in that sense.
Edit: Since you're being pedantic, I checked three dictionaries. This sense of the phrase is in all of them.
What? Sure you can’t deduct them, but if I make $200 million doing something illegal, and the government catches me and fines me $10 million, then that’s just a “cost” I can account for. Make $190 million even after spending $10 million in fines.
Did they make 200 million selling those products ?
7.7b in revenue for the year, probably.
On a handful of products? Doubtful.
At least the government gave them a fine which is a step in the right direction. Country of origin is important to me. I buy based on those labels
Tax deductibility is irrelevant; the cost of the practice pales in comparison to the profit of the practice, making the cost one of doing business.
Words do have meaning. It isn't our fault that you don't know what those words mean.
You don't seem to understand what "write it off" means though, which is why you're getting piled on.
Nobody is talking about taxes except you.
Well they should pick up a dictionary and learn what the word means.
It's an idiom, not a word in the dictionary. You might even notice there are three words in "write it off" if you look carefully and count them out. At this point I'm going to assume you're just trolling but in case you want to educate yourself: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/to+write+it+off
Used in the context you claim, it’s even more of an idiotic thing to say.
The company is being fined. It’s a real penalty. Since we don’t know how much product was sold, we don’t how punitive it is but damn, when the government gets a win you take it.
The fine is inconsequential to the profit they made from lying. If stealing $10,000 from a bank was only punishable by a $500, it would be foolish not to rob the bank since you will make $9,500 in profit, writing the $500 off as an expense alongside gas money and the gun used used to hold up the teller.
Williams & Sinoma made over $7billion in profits last year. This fine is absolutely inconsequential to them and will do nothing to discourage doing it again since the punishment is trivial to the reward.