...talkers as well as racers. BBC News - Today - McLaren £49m 'cheat' fine is tax deductible How they managed to successfully argue that, I'll never know. All the best, Andrew.
Makes total sense. It is a cost of doing business just like replacing a wrecked race car. I'm surprised they even had to explain that one.
Just going to say the same thing; it wasn't a criminal penalty. If it were they wouldn't have been able to deduct it. Good for them...
The cost of doing business? Really? That would only make sense if their business was stealing other peoples intellectual property.
Stealing intellectual property from another company is criminal...unless it wasn't tried like that? In any case, good for them.
I agree with mr Dee. It is simply ludicrous to state that stealing a competitors intellectual property is sufficiently connected with their trade to grant a tax deduction. Samsung is looking closely...
The penalty was imposed by a sports federation, not by any government, so I suppose that somewhat it´s really "part of the game". Oh, well, lawyers!
This. F1 is about the "formula." If Formula 1 was about "intellectual property" each season would be one endless class-action lawsuit among all teams. Every race a team tries out something new, and when it works each team has it copied by next week. Well except HRT. I know there are IP lawyers among us who might be able to shed some light but I'd imagine that buried in part of the various agreements in place to field a team there is some language to the effect neutering such claims. Otherwise each team would have its own headquarters right next to the patent office, and he who runs the double diffuser or f-duct or double-drs on day one would win the season as nobody could copy.
Exactly! No less criminal than another competitor ramming their race car into theirs requiring a replacement to be made and paid for. Again a cost of going racing and doing business
McLaren didn't steal anything - Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney did the stealing. McLaren employees were, at worst, in possession of stolen intellectual property - but the case in Italy never went to trial. The FIA penalty was for bringing the sport into disrepute, not for stealing or possessing IP (although those were factors in the disrepute part, but were never proven in any court and never could have been).
I just realized if this decision happened a few weeks ago,this alone would have paid for Hamilton's contract....
