Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by ununoctium87 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

ununoctium87·

Is the ransom tax deductible?

View on HN

I don't see why not. Business expense?

Isn’t stuff stolen in a theft/robbery deductible generally?

The ransom payment isn't really a theft or robbery, they didn't have to give it.

If you’re mugged, you don’t “have to give” your wallet either, but you were coerced by an external party.

I would argue those are different things because there was the threat of violence in the case of a mugging.

At the bottom of the thread the ransomers gave them security advice. Therefore this is an "unplanned penetration test" and gets filed as "consulting" on the expenses side of the accounts.

Almost all money going out of a business can be deducted from money coming for purposes of counting taxable profit. I'm having a hard time thinking of one that isn't.

In Portugal you can actually make a payment as "Confidential or Undocumented Expense" (with no invoice supporting it), making it taxable instead of tax deductible.

That's ... not a massive loophole used to hide money from taxation?

No, because they are taxed at basically the maximum marginal rate. There are cheaper ways to avoid taxation.

It's seldom used and only when there's no alternative (e.g. a lost invoice that you don't want to charge your employee for).

Ach, sorry, I misread your comment -- so, it doesn't change their tax situation, so there's no reason to falsely use this. Understood. Never mind.

You don't have to pay Bill $40/hour in wages, you could have probably hired someone who could do the job for $30/hour.

Yet, regardless of how much you pay Bill, his wages are tax-deductible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com