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What are you going to do with that three-year-old, slow-as-molasses PC? Make it a doorstop?
There's a much better use, according to tax consulting and management firm Grant Thornton. It says entrepreneurs are missing out on a
valuable tax write-off by not claiming such items as abandoned assets. You can claim the remaining tax basis, or undepreciated portion
of the equipment, as your write-off, just as long as you declare in writing your intent to abandon it by Dec. 31 of a given year.
"There has been a tremendous change in technology, and there is a big turnover in equipment all the time," says Tom Ochsenschlager, a
tax specialist in the firm's office in Vienna, Va.
What else must you do to qualify? After documenting why the equipment is no longer useful to you, cart it off to the trash, and make
sure you have a signed witness. If throwing stuff away makes you uncomfortable, you can donate it to your local elementary school. Just
make sure you get a record of that, too.
Yes, it's too late to chuck your 486 for this April's return. But when it comes to taxes, there's always next year.
By
Jeremy Quittner
in New York
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