Comment by stockresearcher
7 months ago
The IRS allows companies to choose between cash-based and accrual-based accounting.
Most companies choose accrual-based accounting. It's much more complicated, and one of the things about it is that you don't don't get to count money collected as revenue until the customer actually "uses" it to buy something from you. That's just the way that goes. Remember - the company chose this method of accounting. If you form a company and don't make the choice, the IRS will assume you are using cash-based accounting.
But here's something interesting - Warren Buffett explaining how liabilities are insanely profitable for Berkshire Hathaway (except that he calls it "float" instead of "liabilities") [1]. Liabilities are just a number on a chart, neither good nor bad. How you handle them, how you communicate about them, etc. That's what matters.
The IRS allows for cash-based accounting, but GAAP requires accrual-based accounting, if you meet the thresholds and have to file statements with the SEC, then you have to at least follow GAAP for the statements.
I don't know if Anthropic needs to file statements with the SEC, but they might be trying to get their books aligned for it.