Comments on: Smithee Update: October 2008

By: Writer's Coin

Writer's Coin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:37:41 +0000

Congrats on the new job! I made a move similar to yours in January and it was the best feeling ever!

By: Smithee

Smithee — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:08:18 +0000

Yeah, when I used the word “investment”, I wasn’t thinking about taxes, or business, or depreciation, really. I was just thinking, “not a total waste of money”. Not owning a business, and never even having taken a business class in college, I forget that it has an actual meaning.

By: Antelope

Antelope — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:42:57 +0000

If maybe you’d spent your eight hundy on one microphone, you could call that an investment – let’s say you purchased a Neuman KMS105 or something good, now that’s an investment, because the more it gets used, the better it will sound. A Nady, an MXL, or any of the cheap microphones are essentially disposable throwaways. A Midas Verona? That’s an investment – hell, even some of the higher end Mackie stuff is an investment. Depreciating a $50 mic might not be the best use of your ink on the tax form – and if you bought your gear from one of the big box places (Guitar Center, Sam Ash, etc) you also paid more for mistreated junk. Sorry to tell you that, but you should know.

Nearly 100% of the “investments” I buy for my work are deductible or “write-offable.” But I am using them 100% of the time on business. I wish you good luck on whatever venture you’re trying to justify buying a bunch of stuff. But it might be better and more honest to say that you wanted a microphone, mixer, and some other stuff than to say you made an “investment.” That sounds like excuses made to justify handing your money to other people.

By: CJ

CJ — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:13:22 +0000

I feel you. I always try to justify electronic purchases any way I can.

For instance, I just got a new job that doubled my income and I only work 4 days a week. The problem is I now commute an hour while before it was 15 minutes. Since I don’t live in a big city, the selection of radio stations is fairly limited, so I decided that I was going to get an iPod to plug into my car to listen to music and some of my favorite podcasts. Sure, I could go with a cheap off brand MP3 player… but no, I want the brand new 32GB iPod Touch. My excuse is that I need an iPod for the commute, but in reality I could just as easily listen to one of the few radio stations we have or purchase an older or off brand MP3 player, but I need the best.

Same goes for my computer. Since I’m a network administrator at my day job and I run my own blog and a freelance web design company on the side, I always find an excuse to buy the latest and greatest computer. In reality, I could be just as productive on the old one.

Maybe one day I will learn… probably not.

By: Mr. ToughMoneyLove

Mr. ToughMoneyLove — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:11:55 +0000

Yep – you’ve been naughty and it sounds like your fixin’ to be naughty again soon. You are definitely in full consumer mode. Nancy Pelosi wants to send you more stimulus money so that you can be even more patriotic by buying more stuff.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:38:20 +0000

You can definitely consider the work you do as a business, so you can write off the depreciation of the A/V equipment you consider necessary for doing your job. You won’t get the total value of your purchase back in tax credits, but it helps.

By: dogatemyfinances

dogatemyfinances — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:35:13 +0000

This sounds like the kind of thing you need to write off if you’re in the business of making some kind of commentary. A/V equipment as an “investment”, especially video cameras, is just silly. They plummet in value, which is why the used ones were so cheap. If you are using a 5 year old video camera right now, you’re obsolete.

I might rethink the “investment” justification. And if it is an investment, start a business and write it off.