As you explore your options for equipping your business, don't overlook the possibility of using items that you already own. Putting items such as your cars, office furnishings, and computer equipment to work in your business, even if only on a temporary basis, can free up dollars that you would have otherwise spent on acquisition costs. Furthermore, you'll enjoy the tax benefit of claiming depreciation deductions with respect to the items that you convert to business use.
If you're conducting business as a sole proprietorship, there's really no trick to converting your personal assets. All it takes is to start using them in your business. Perhaps your only real concern will be confirming whether you'll lose insurance coverage for the converted items under your homeowners policy. If so, you'll want to be sure to have the items covered by your business policy.
For depreciation purposes, you'll need to know both the amount that you originally paid for each converted item and the fair market value at the time you started using it for business because your deductions must be computed on the basis of the lower of those two amounts. Also, if you continue to make some personal use of the assets, you'll need to keep track of how much time the converted assets are used for business purposes and how much time they are used for personal purposes. Depreciation deductions are allowed only with respect to the business use of the assets.
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