Every bit as troublesome are some of the more intangible costs to be expected.

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For small-scale drilling partners the Internal Revenue Service permits the immediate deduction of so-called intangible drilling costs (labor and fuel, mainly).

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Independent firms benefit from full expensing of their intangible drilling costs, while the integrated firms can expense only 70 percent of their IDCs and must write off the rest over a five- year period.

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No matter how much you wiped out your income with exotic tax perks like intangible drilling costs and other tax-shelter sounding items, you paid a smaller alternative tax rate on virtually everything with no deductions.

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Harder to measure is the opportunity costs and intangible losses coaches endure.

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These reconciliations adjust the related GAAP financial measures to exclude stock-based compensation, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, other acquisition-related costs, a contribution expense, a legal settlement charge, and the associated tax impact of these items, where applicable.

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Under German accounting the producer of an intangible asset like a film must treat the production costs as an expense.

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