It won’t be long before business owners in the Natick, Framingham, and Sudbury areas are crunching numbers to do their 2021 taxes. Once December 31st has passed, there is no longer any way to impact that tax bill through purchase deductions.
This makes the end of the year a popular time to make technology upgrades that can then be used for tax deductions in a few months to reduce your liability. Section 179 of the U.S. tax code lays out various types of equipment technology deductions you can take. There is also a 100% depreciation deduction that is still in place that allows you to not only deduct the cost of qualifying IT equipment but also 100% of the depreciation in the same tax year.
Section 179 is designed to help out small and mid-sized businesses. The deduction limit for 2021 is $1,050,000, so you can deduct the cost of qualifying equipment up to that amount.
Qualifying IT equipment categories include:
- Hardware (Computers, servers, networking equipment, etc.)
- Software (Must be publicly available)
- Security system equipment
- Communications devices/equipment
- Office equipment (printers, headphones, etc.)
If you would like to do something to reduce your tax bill for the year, but aren’t sure what upgrades to consider, here are several popular ones to take a look at.
Popular IT Upgrades to Enhance Your Business
Conference Room A/V or Huddle Spaces
Video calls have risen to a whole new level of importance since the start of the pandemic. If your calls have poor sound or video quality, it can make your business look bad to prospective customers. It can also cause your team to waste time repeating things during a meeting.
Investing in an HD webcam and soundbar for your conference room or a huddle space (a smaller space dedicated to video meetings), you can significantly improve your virtual meeting quality without spending a lot of money.
Digital Door Access
Using keys and locks for door access is becoming outdated and inefficient. When using this system, companies are faced with having to replace lost keys, rekey locks when an employee leaves, and not knowing exactly who last had access to a sensitive area.
Digital door access systems replace key locks with keypads. Employees can be given a personal code to use for access, and the system keeps track of who is accessing which door at what time.
If an employee leaves, all you need to do is deactivate their access code. There are also no lost keys to replace.
Remote Team Office Equipment
The hybrid remote workforce is here to stay. This legacy of the pandemic has changed the fabric of the U.S. office and resulted in increased productivity and employee morale overall. But there are still employees that haven’t been provided the same resources as they had at the office.
If you want your work-from-home employees to be just as (or more) productive than when in the office, you may need to supply them with some of the same equipment.
This could include:
- Work laptop or PC
- Quality monitor
- Headset and/or VoIP desk phone
- Office chair
- Filing cabinet
- Printer
Security Cameras With 2-Way Audio
Security camera systems have become much more affordable for small and mid-sized companies over the last few years. This has made it easier for those businesses to increase their physical building security.
Another handy feature of cloud security cameras is 2-way audio. Cameras with 2-way audio can double as an easy way to speak to someone out in a warehouse or another part of the building as needed.
Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Network
If your network isn’t optimized, it can bring productivity down for your entire office. With so much work being done via cloud applications these days, a slow network can create multiple roadblocks to getting work done efficiently.
Upgrading to a Wi-Fi 6 mesh network provides multiple advantages because you’ll be combining two fairly new improvements to wireless connectivity. These are:
- Wi-Fi 6: Wi-Fi 6 is the newest wireless standard, but many office routers are still running slower and less secure Wi-Fi 5. The newer standard improves security significantly, as well as speed and reliability.
- Mesh Network: A mesh network is a system of routers that give you several wireless units instead of just one router. Having your signal dispersed through several connection points increases reliability, network reach, and helps eliminate weak or “deal” Wi-Fi signal zones in your building.
Get Help Planning & Implementing End-of-Year IT Upgrades
Pro Tech Guy can help your Framingham or Natick business choose the IT upgrades that would bring the most value to your business. We’ll also help you with a professional implementation to ensure you can benefit from the enhanced efficiency as well as get a handy tax break.
Contact us today to learn more. Call 508-364-8189 or reach us online.