A briefing for housing association finance directors on the new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).16 March 2011UK
accounting rules are set to give way to new International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Housing SORP Working Party has already
spent months reviewing the proposed changes and continues to work
through the details.The
Federation has produced an IFRS briefing for housing
association finance directors. It describes the ASB's key proposals for
converging UK GAAP with international financial reporting standards and
it summarises the likely impacts for the sector. One
of the main purposes of our briefing is to highlight to members the
important issues and to encourage housing associations to respond to the
consultation exercise. New sources: http://www.housing.org.uk/publications/find_a_publication/finance/ifrs_briefing_update.aspx.
At first I hated the thought of taxing intellectual property - selfishly I thought, Hey I make my living off of services (website design, app development and content) this would be bad for me & my company.
Then I thought, hmmm. ok so I pay a small % of what I realistically value my rights at, based on sales. If that were balanced against my taxes (I know, big IF) it shouldn't hurt because I am already taxed on profits from my work.
Now for the real benefit. RIAA comes to mind but really all Co's who overvalue their intellectual property or squat on ideas and litigate to bring down other innovators will be held accountable. Business that use their legal $$ to put a stranglehold on innovation and those, like the RIAA, who over value their 'products' for huge court wins will need to pay taxes on the value of the idea. They will have incentive to let the non-used ones go free and honestly assess the value of their intellectual portfolio.
Squatting on ideas or sitting on unused rights hurts innovation and competition. Not to mention we as tax payers pay for the litigation in our courts so if my tax $$ goes to help the RIAA when they sue to protect their business interests I think it's only fair that they pay taxes in proportion to that right.

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