They have ~$35 billion in cash per their cash flow statement:

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/cash-flow?p=MSFT

They could in effect write a check today for it.

Only if "penalties and interest" is less than ~2% annually.

LOL, like they would ever do that! They will make MS customers pay for it, if they can't convince the IRS to lower the bill significantly, which they probably can.

"Lets put aside $2B for legal costs, as they should be able halve that or better over the next decade..." ;)

Of course they will make their customers pay for it. That's how companies work: the customers pay for the expenses of the company.

No, they pay for the value the company provides them. That only bears mild relation to what it cost the company to provide that value.

"if they can't convince the IRS to lower the bill significantly"

Why would IRS agree to this? Would the IRS agree to lower your taxes if you pretty-pleased them?

Microsoft should not be an exception.

If MS come up with significant technicalities or challenges to the amount due, the IRS will have to choose between litigating each one of them, which both costs them money and involves the risk of losing in court, or coming to an out-of-court agreement with MS.

Obviously if MS don't have anything that won't get laughed out of court, they shouldn't get much of a reduction. If your challenge to your tax bill doesn't involve anything where the rules are hard to interpret and precedent has not been set, you also won't. (If it does, your tax affairs are probably much more complicated than the average citizen. Which is obviously true for Microsoft.)

Worth bearing in mind too that the number might be an optimistic headline figure which has been rounded up in various ways by the IRS, to make themselves look tough, and to encourage MS to settle.

> Microsoft should not be an exception.

I mean... I agree, they shouldn't, but I think we all know how this will turn out.

The IRS settles for lower amounts ALL the time, it wouldn't be even remotely exceptional if MS gets a discount. They have an entire department to handle these offers in compromise: https://www.irs.gov/payments/offer-in-compromise

Even with 30B cash in the bank, MS will do everything it can to lower that bill. First they will fight it, and take all the little wins they can get. Then whenever it's pretty clear what parts they can't win, they will then start negotiating with the IRS to try and pay 50 cents on the dollar or something.

Part of the tactic is delaying, the longer they can put off actually writing the check, the better, as money today is worth more than money tomorrow(inflation and time value of money).

The IRS works out payment plans and reduced payments very regularly, for both citizens and corporations alike.

That money came from customers too.

I know I am in the minority but I cannot understand how mercilessly taxing providers of services that improve our lives is not... theft, honestly.

It is not about how much money they make but about about a third party appropriating what a company that provides such a big value does because, hey, you are "stealing me because I exist"...

Now people will vote me negative, I know...

This is before any negotiated settlement, if they are found to have to pay at all, which will be, in all likelihood, substantially lower

They have over 115 Billion cash on hand.

But I bet a lot of that is in long term treasuries which, if you want to use them as legal tender, are kinda down in price right now (if you don't hold them til maturity). And if they need to take a loan to pay it, those bonds are going to be at fairly high rates. Overall, it's gonna be a stock price haircut for sure. I'm guessing at least 10-20% because of all the money they could have MADE with that money.

Random googling finds “Cash equivalents are any short-term investment securities with maturity periods of 90 days or less.”

They have $35 billion in Cash & Cash Equivalents.

Yep. Accounting standards dictate that a cash equivalent should be essentially as liquid as cash from the perspective of the holder. It’s safe to lump it in here.

Long-term treasuries are generally not considered "cash." Short-term, sure, but t-bills are doing fine.

Yeah, and if that takes a $30B hit to settle past accounting issues, that’s still $30B no longer poised for an acquisition or on hand to settle some EU action next year.

Losing a quarter of your cash reserves for no gain isn’t going to ruin today’s business but it sure will frustrate existing strategies for the future.

You can acquire with shares though. They or they could raise 30Bn pretty easy.

>that’s still $30B no longer poised for an acquisition

They accumulate that much cash because there are no acquisitions to be had in the current economic climate. I can't imagine a $30B+ company that Microsoft could acquire without massive regulatory scrutiny.

Good! Hopefully Microsoft burns through as much of their cash paying penalties as possible and dies as a result, as they should've a decade+ ago.

Maybe it could come from those huge executive salaries and bonuses that are many multiples higher than regular employees.

Why should they do that? They should simply add more annoying advertising and other BS to their products, especially Windows OS. What are customers going to do, go elsewhere or switch to another OS that doesn't have ads?

That won't cover billions of dollars. Multiples don't matter.