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The winter season can be a hectic time with all the holidays flooding our busy schedules. Before heading into December, it is imperative to ensure that tax planning strategies adopted throughout the year have been implemented before year-end quickly approaches to avoid any unexpected tax liabilities come April.

Have you been waiting for the right time to make that big purchase? Now might be the time to execute a plan to get that new fancy piece of equipment you have been eyeing in the door.

Section 179 is a method of accelerated depreciation that allows the taxpayer to write off an entire equipment purchase. Section 179 is a great tool because it allows for a 100% deduction in the year of purchase, as opposed to taking those deductions over a period in smaller increments.

To qualify for this deduction, the equipment must be purchased and placed in service within the same year.

Here is a scenario where a practice purchased a $20,000 piece of equipment at the beginning of December to utilize this deduction. This purchase was part of their business tax plan to reduce profit, but they did not receive the equipment until January 2^nd. Since they did not receive the equipment until the following year, they were unable to take the Section 179 deduction and ultimately had tax liabilities when we filed their tax returns.