Tax Time is Upon Us

The first quarter of the year means that taxes are coming due soon. The end of January is the deadline that your employer had to get you your W-2 statement that outlines how much you've been paid this past year and how much taxes may have been withheld. I can safely assume that if you're reading this post, you have a personal computer of some kind and an internet connection. Whether you pay for that internet access or not is a question of how frugal you are. Many people are able to successfully locate free wi-fi hot spots for their internet access and have successfully discontinued paid internet access. I am thinking they are a minority, but I know they're out there; especially if those free hot spots are close to where they live. But this post isn't about whether or not you're paying for internet access. It's about getting the most out of your PC and your access to the internet.

Is your computer an asset or a liability? Sure, many of you probably consider your computer an asset if you use it for work of one kind or another, but are you paying dearly for the convenience, or are you squeezing the most out of your investment and making it pay for itself? Many of us own PCs and have never earned a single dollar using the hardware or software that we've purchased. Others may have gotten paid to do something and gotten paid for it on occassion. The truth of the matter is that there are literally thousands, if not millions of ways that you can make your computer pay for itself. If you use your computer professionally, or have legally set up a computer oriented business, you may be able to write off the cost or your computer and/or software purchases. Since it's a big ticket item that has a specific lifespan, you'll find that you need to depreciate that machine over it's lifetime (it's true you can do it all at once), but consult your tax preparer or the IRS for more information regarding computer equipment purchases and depreciation.

If you have a personal computer and you only use it casually and cannot claim it as a business expence, you are literally tossing money out the window. It is so easy to set up a legitimate business that requires a computer and therefore qualifies as a tax deduction. You could set up a tax preparation service, a resume writing service, accounting and bookkeeping services or about a thousand other types of businesses including internet companies that can legally do business all around the world. If your business is online, you can write off your expensive high-speed internet access bill. But besides being able to save the amount of money you're spending on your computer hardware, software and internet access, it is also very likely that you will increase your income, so you can pay even more taxes, and isn't that our goal in life, to pay more taxes? This week, I'm going to take a closer look at putting your PC to work for you. Treat your computer like an employee instead of a tool. PCs are here to help us, so let's take advantage of that.