[LINK] ATO Ruling

[Adam Todd]

> > >AUSTRALIAN IT INDUSTRY CRITICIZES TAX RULING
> > >The Australian IT industry is criticizing a final decision
> > >from the Australian Tax Office that rules that simple
> > >Websites that involve converting documents to HTML and
> > >adding a few links does not constitute software development.

I'm not criticizing it!

>Well, it doesn't :)

I totally agree!

>Maybe simple website publishing deserves to be more deductible, but it
>certainly doesn't merit the label "software development". Once you start
>adding dynamic content to a site, and certainly once you start dealing
>with money and credit card numbers, the skills required to develop the
>website, and the cost thereof, enters an entirely different ballpark.

One can hardly call using Frontpage "Software Development" otherwise every 
company secretary that uses "Word" and saves as HTML will also qualify!

>A lot of the time, when I hear about what someone paid to have a simple
>website done, I can't help but feel they've been ripped off..

Yeah, like City Search, $193 a MONTH, and over $500 in development costs 
for a ONE page with four buttons that go nowhere!