Hal Pomeranz

Yeah, I know it’s LinkedIn—sorry.

tl;dr Is that the high tech layoffs in the past few years have been largely driven by changes to the US tax code. These jobs may never be coming back. Prepare for an extended period of unemployment uncertainty.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tax-consequences-hal-pomeranz-holpe

Tax and Consequences

Every day brings news of more layoffs in the tech sector. Every day I see good people in my timeline struggling to find a new job, struggling to keep a roof over their head and food on the table, struggling with their mental health and sense of self worth.

Jun 24 at 1:58pmWeb
Show threadGarlic PicklesJun 24
@hal_pomeranz Quartz had a good article about this a couple weeks ago if people want another source.
https://qz.com/tech-layoffs-tax-code-trump-section-174-microsoft-meta-1851783502
Tech Layoffs Tax Code Trump Section 174 Microsoft Meta - Quartz

A decades-old tax rule helped build America's tech economy. A quiet change under Trump helped dismantle it

Quartz
Show threadfeldJun 24
@garlickles @hal_pomeranz I see a lot of people trying to defend the old tax code but I'm not sure I agree.

So the idea is that the dev R&D work was previously allowed to be expensed immediately, but the gov is now saying that because it can create a capital asset it has to be amortized over 5 years? And if you use foreign labor it's actually 15 years?

I see where this is going to crush startups and shut down risky R&D projects causing layoffs and how it gave America an edge as other countries weren't doing this, but I just can't say I agree that we were doing the right thing.
Show threadHal PomeranzJun 24

@feld @garlickles I’m not sure I agree either. But this change does have an enormous impact on the high tech jobs market, and people need to prepare for this reality.

I could bemoan the lack of “research for research’s sake” that we lost when Bell Labs and similar corporate research centers went away. When the Apollo program ended and later when the space shuttles stopped flying. But that’s a whole separate conversation.