> The core question is to what extend software constitutes an asset or consumption.
Isn't part of the problem with our industry that, even it is an asset, its value can be hard to determine even for a long time after you've written it, and it may be pretty weakly related to how much you paid to build it?
- you might have spent a lot on developers last year but next year you find out that you're the new Quibi and no one wants to use your product
- you might have had a small, tight team and what you built turns out to be hugely valuable (like instagram or whatsapp)
- ... and to the degree that the software is part of a valuable business, how do you really assign value to the software as versus the go-to-market plan, the partnership/distribution agreements, etc that helped make the business succeed?
These risks would appear to be the same as a shoe producer wanting to bring shoes to market - regardless they are still taxed on the value of their inventory.
Some of the risks are similar, but your "regardless" is bypassing the point.
We can value a real shoe pretty well. But what if we could duplicate all the shoes we built for less than a penny per pair? What would be the value of our inventory?
There are pretty established accounting rules for this.
For valuing digital goods?
Are those rules smarter than looking at the money it took to make? If so please share where I can read more.
If not, then despite being "established" the problem isn't solved.