John Ritchie

Training for Success with Your Internet Business, Article 7, Depreciation Costs.

The seventh in a series of training articles entitled, Training for Success with Your Internet Business,  This article covers Depreciation Costs,  and is a must read for all business owners, whether they are operating an on line home based business, or a regular home based business. The tips and suggestions are provided from real life situations as seen and experienced by the author.

Capital items that you purchase for use in your business may not be written off as an expense during the year in which you acquire them.

 You must depreciate all capital items or equipment used for the operation of your business. Depreciation means that you will only be allowed to write off as an expense, a portion of the cost of each capital item, each year that you own it.

A capital item is normally defined as something with a useful life of more than one year and costing more than $1000, although in some tax jurisdictions this limit will be either higher or lower.  Thus $1000 is a guideline and does not always apply.  If, for example, you had a number of related items with a life greater than one year, costing less than $1000 each, that together cost over $1,000, they will probably qualify as capital items. An example could be a boardroom table and chairs.

You will need to ascertain the rules for your country by contacting your local tax authorities.

Capital items include but are not limited to:

Furniture and equipment,

Pictures,

Lamps,

Computers,

Adding machines,

Tape playing or recording equipment,

Video equipment,

Shelving, bins, or boxes,

Computer peripherals, such as printers, scanners, microphones, webcams etc.

Motor Vehicles.

In order to ascertain the amount of depreciation allowed for capital items, you will once again need to refer to your local tax authorities. They will provide you with the categories that are available to you and also the rates in effect at which the items may be depreciated each year.

Frequently, you will find the rate allowed for depreciation of an item during the year in which it is acquired and also in the year in which it is sold or disposed of, will be lower than during the intervening periods. This is not an error, this is by design of the tax authorities.

If you sell any of your depreciated items for more than its depreciated value, i.e., the amount you paid minus the amount you have written off, then you will be subjected to a recapture tax on the difference.

Note: Taxation legislation differs between countries and each country may change their rules at any time. The information provided in these newsletters is accurate at time of publication. You should however seek specific information from your Tax Advisor or Taxation Department as it relates to your own situation each year that you are required to provide Income and Expense Statements.

John Ritchie, 

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