Autumn is now in full swing, meaning the year is coming to an end. Have you made your Section 179 plans yet? You definitely should.
As you probably know, Section 179 (the “buy equipment and get a sweet tax break” tax deduction) got a nice boost this year. In fact, the maximum deduction this year has been raised to 500k. That’s five hundred thousand dollars that you can deduct from your company’s income this year (assuming you buy that much equipment, of course).
Here’s the upside for you – no matter what type of company you are, you use equipment in your business. Machinery, vehicles, tools, software, office machines, chairs, tables, store fixtures… you name it.
Knowing this, it’s almost a given that there is some type of equipment in your company that could use an upgrade. And, as any smart businessperson knows, good equipment is profitable. Even something that is not “obvious”, like new chairs and desks, can have a marked effect on employee productivity.
With all of this said, there’s 500,000 reasons why you would want to buy new (or new to you) equipment THIS year. The deduction is good only if you buy and put the equipment into service by midnight, 12/31/2013. After that, you have to go by whatever rules Section 179 will follow for 2014. And there’s a good chance it’s not the same “half a million” number (if you look at the history of Section 179, you’ll see it has varied quite a bit over the years.)
So the time to act is 2013, and, as the autumn air tells us, 2013 is fast drawing to a close. So again, this is my reminder to all businesspeople – the Section 179 deduction is super-generous this year, and it definitely should be taken advantage of. It’s a “use it or lose it” proposition, so Fletch suggests you definitely look around your company and see what could use an upgrade. You Uncle Sam will reward you handsomely for doing such.