On: There is no software maintenance

[ebiester]

Another perspective not mentioned is that there is a real context for why the distinction matters in the US. In the US, new features can be described as capital expenditures, or CapEx, whereas maintaining the fitness of the software is considered OpEx, or operational expenditures, and both are taxed differently. This matters for public companies.

[eo3x0 → ebiester]

This matters for R&D tax credits as well. Only new feature development is considered eligible.

[aorloff → ebiester]

Private companies too. And the P&L looks really different depending on whether you expense or capitalize everything