John Hjorth

Aberhound, Pardon my ignorance here, what are you referring to here? The book by Mr. Dean Henderson? Other?

Thank you for sharing the Staff Discussion Paper in your topic starting post, SharperDingaan, It's a great & interesting read.

Life is not always easy, even despite you're a Tesla owned by Mr. Musk. - - - o 0 o - - - Poor car & *shaking head*.

On November 30 2017, Mr. Taleb released the cover for his latest book "Skin in the Game" on FB, the book to be released at the end February 2018, if I remember correctly. [basically, you can read the whole book already by now, by using his personal website, combined with Medium.] Please see attached, and please see the back side of the cover, especially the last comment there. No foreword here from some big hot shot![, who most likely does not understand the man anyway [lol]]. This man is in every way seeking the borders of everything. However he's not full grown antifragile yet, otherwise he would have put those comments in the book as a foreword. - - - o 0 o - - - I have read some other comments about legs and dogs behavior related to one of the other quotes on the backside of the cover, however I'll leave it up to your self to find those comments, because Dough, the OP in this topic - has asked in the topic title to keep the jokes PC.

Copying from General News topic: I haven't seen a company with that big of a deferred tax liability either. Obviously it is a consequence of rarely, if ever, selling anything large and a half century of acquisitions. Even Precision Castparts came with ~$7.5 Billion of "income tax, principally deferred" - so a lot of this liability is never to be realized even if the equity portfolio was completely liquidated. At the last 10Q there was $82.2 Billion of unrealized appreciation in equity securities and another $1 Billion on the bond portfolio. At 35% that amounts to a $29 Billion deferred tax liability. At 20% it is $16.65 Billion, a savings of over $12 Billion if the tax plan passes and Berkshire gets the 20% rate. Year end gains look to be higher still, at least so far. Berkshire's tax rate bounces all over the place between 30% and 20% most of the time. But the tax liability on the unrealized investment gains is usually calculated right at 35%. I can't speak to the rates used to calculate the rest of that income tax liability. But it isn't nearly as important since it won't be spent. The equities may actually be sold, resulting in a real cash savings. I don't see them selling the land under BNSF's tracks or the property plant and equipment of PCC. Well said, globalfinancepartners, We also know that a significant part of the deferred taxes are related to BNSF and Berkshire Hathaway Energy - companies primarily operating in the US.

No harm done, DooDiligence, We can just continue the Berkshire tax discussion here. [ : - ) ]

The Berkshire tax discussion is for a short period continued here.

Berkshire income taxes end of 2017Q3, balance sheet, liabilities, stated at USD B 86.559, with the text:"Income taxes, principally deferred". So a rough estimate of effect on Berkshire equity according to the financials would be: [uSD B 86.559 * [[35% - 20%]/35%]] = USD 37,097. So the numbers mentioned so far here seem to me to be in right ballpark, and most of all material, even to Berkshire. This estimate is most likely overstating the accounting effect, the most material part of the overstatement being deferred taxes in subs taxable outside US, who will continue to account for deferred taxes based on actual local/national corporation tax rates. - - - o 0 o - - - All other nitpicking omitted here. - - - o 0 o - - - Isen't Berkshire World Champion in deferring taxes by the way? -I do not recall ever having read any other balance sheet with such a large figure stated for deferred taxes.

It's good humor, DooDiligence, A few years from now you will be able to look back at this post of yours and at that future point in time think that what mattered was that you actually bought in stead of staying on the sideline. Because longinvestor is right: It's a hedge against bad things happening to you in the future. [Falling in love again etc.]

"Devastating" provision in tax bill could hobble solar, wind tax credits. All over the place this morning here in Denmark. I'm happy I did not grab for some VWS shares. I expect it to be really hurt when the Danish market opens in a few minutes.

I have expected this post from you the last two days, Valuehalla! [ ; -) ]

I had a similar surreal experience recently with SCHO.CPH in connection with Q3 reporting. Absolutely strange market reactions to trifles from a well run company with an unassailable reputation and trustworthy management. If honesty is a not a 1/0-thing, I would say that you are more honest than me, because what I posted here on CobF was actually "Oh well", while I meant "WTF". [lol] - - - o 0 o - - - Back to topic.

I've been sitting on this damn thing for more than five years now. [very small position]. I suppose TwoCitiesCapital does, too. Waiting for the gas to flow into China in 2018. We should discuss it more in depth in its separate topic in the Investment Ideas forum.

The balance sheet gets a "reset" to zero, everything "left" [so far] goes into the income statement. It's IFRS accounting.

blainehodder, Most likely, things just does not work that way many places here in Europe. Damien, Great to to see you use CoBF this way!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Somehow, your new board signature has a lot of appeal to me, Jeff!

Hi Eric, Why not buy just BAM since they have an ownership stake in a slew of their spinoffs? Quote from the BAM topic in the Investment Ideas forum:

Thanks, cubsfan, Absolutely nothing wrong with being dense, and at the same to the point!

It was meant as a joke, cubsfan. [ ; - ) ] - We have this separate topic in the General Discussion forum "Please tell me a joke..." T&T slapping does not qualify in that particular topic, because the jokes have to be PC [<-relative to this board]. So, basically I just chose to post my comment here, in this topic. Choice between plague and colera. I just couldn't help it, I had to get it out. [ :-) ] Peace. [ :-) ]

It's used in this topic as a direct reference to the definition made by Mr. Taleb in his book of the same name, which is covered in the Books forum here.

By basic accounting logic, it's not possible to enter the transactions [sale and purchase, sucject to fair trade] to the general ledger by different dates. The only way to get around this [dishonestly], is by booking the sales as revenue and on accounts receiable, and at a later date, the purchase of the T-shirts is entered into the accounts. Auditors analyse cash flow on accounts receiable after balance sheet date. Systematic "netting posting patterns" will at some time end up in the auditors trawl, and be subject to discussion. It's exactly the same as with credit notes issued after balance sheet date related to the years sale. Incoming money, or not.

JRM, Now I understand your question in full, I think, especially your use the term fair trade in this topic. The price of the service or good provided always has to be tested regularly by procurement, comparing procurement by fair trade with procurement later paid in cash.

Thank you for elaboration here, JRM, Generallly, in a listed company [anywhere], there are business procedures and internal controls in place - out of control of a low level managers not involved in or responsible for finance & accounting. The principle is generally, that people who have ordered something, from outside the company, are not the people who receive and record the invoices, so that the finance department [not the person ordering something] is keeping track of "invoices received, but yet not approved". Every properly carried out substantive testing at year end or at a hard close before year end, perhaps combined with compliance testing up against approved procedures during the year would reveal this practice, if material, and also if appropriate procedures are not in place. An internal control environment built on some basic principles combined with follow-up is both self-sustaining, self-reinforcing & self-correcting, if people involved are honest and actually thinking while at work. In short, your friend is playing with your friend's job.

JRM, Are we talking about accrual accounting for a radio station here, with regard to accrual accounting for expenses, or are we talking about accrual accounting for revenue? I'm not sure I understand your question in all details and to full extent.