What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MA
I bought a laptop in 2009 for my home business (tutoring and educational publishing), and I want to deduct it as a Section 179 business expense using form 4562 if possible. The laptop will be the only property on form 4562. My home business ran a profit in 2009--even after deducting the other form 8829 stuff--and that profit was greater than the cost of the laptop. I'm fairly sure that my laptop needs to be considered as "Listed Property" (if possible) because it's a computer that isn't used exclusively at my home office.
The problem is that I had no idea that I needed to keep a computer log, and now I've come across line 24a of form 4562 and encountered those two intimidating questions:
24a Do you have evidence to support the business/investment use claimed?
24b If “Yes,” is the evidence written?
The business is fairly new and I've never depreciated anything before, and, in all honesty, part of the whole stinkin idea of a home business is that you can simultaneously have business and personal computing activity going on in a fast multi-tasking environment. In fact, I think the entire concept of a business-vs-non-business computer log from moment-to-moment or even hour-to-hour in a home business is unrealistic to the point of being freaking nuts. Excuse the rant.
My estimate is that I use the laptop about 65% of the time for business and 35% for personal use, but that's just an estimate based on how I spend my time in general. I don't think I have evidence of a particular percentage. I certainly don't have written evidence. With no time logs, will the IRS just consider that I didn't use the laptop at all for my business in 2009 and it won't be placed into service for business use until the day my log starts? I have a lot of business stuff on my laptop from the day I purchased it. Can I determine percent business usage by another written method other than a time log such as percent of hard disk usage or percent of emails?
I bought a laptop in 2009 for my home business (tutoring and educational publishing), and I want to deduct it as a Section 179 business expense using form 4562 if possible. The laptop will be the only property on form 4562. My home business ran a profit in 2009--even after deducting the other form 8829 stuff--and that profit was greater than the cost of the laptop. I'm fairly sure that my laptop needs to be considered as "Listed Property" (if possible) because it's a computer that isn't used exclusively at my home office.
The problem is that I had no idea that I needed to keep a computer log, and now I've come across line 24a of form 4562 and encountered those two intimidating questions:
24a Do you have evidence to support the business/investment use claimed?
24b If “Yes,” is the evidence written?
The business is fairly new and I've never depreciated anything before, and, in all honesty, part of the whole stinkin idea of a home business is that you can simultaneously have business and personal computing activity going on in a fast multi-tasking environment. In fact, I think the entire concept of a business-vs-non-business computer log from moment-to-moment or even hour-to-hour in a home business is unrealistic to the point of being freaking nuts. Excuse the rant.
My estimate is that I use the laptop about 65% of the time for business and 35% for personal use, but that's just an estimate based on how I spend my time in general. I don't think I have evidence of a particular percentage. I certainly don't have written evidence. With no time logs, will the IRS just consider that I didn't use the laptop at all for my business in 2009 and it won't be placed into service for business use until the day my log starts? I have a lot of business stuff on my laptop from the day I purchased it. Can I determine percent business usage by another written method other than a time log such as percent of hard disk usage or percent of emails?
