What can we buy our company for Christmas? Taking advantage of the instant asset tax write-off

We have until January 1 to install new PCs, printers, storage systems and servers, update a firewall or invest in a large TV for displaying charts on the office wall.

If your business is turning over less than $2 million you can claim an instant asset tax write-off on goods up to the value of $6500 in one year. After January 1 this will only apply to goods up to $1000 in value.

With Windows XP going end of life in April 2014 you would have to have rocks in your head not to replace every Windows XP PC in your business before New Year’s Eve. Note the device needs to be installed by then so don’t wait for the last minute. There are some fantastic new devices on the market that offer the full power of a PC in a tiny form factor and it is a great time to invest in a new device. If you are in a design industry there will not be a better time to upgrade any out-of-date workstations with high speed, high end systems.

Let’s just look across an SME doing under $2 million in turnover and consider some of the bits of technology or infrastructure you are likely to have that do cost over $1000 and could be replaced if they are going to require that soon in any case.

Let’s start at the front door and work our way through the office:

• Signage
• Security system
• Electronic door locks
• CCTV for video surveillance
• Phone system
• Servers
• Routers and switches
• Firewall
• PCs (especially those with windows XP)
• Printers
• TVs or digital displays
• Office furniture
• Carpet or other floor covering
• Lighting
• Kitchen whitegoods like a new fridge or coffee machine

Of course you can argue that many of these things will cost under $1000 each and so there is no rush to run out and spend money. That is fair enough but if you need some larger ticket items, now is a great time to be buying things up to the threshold to get the immediate benefit of the depreciation this year. How many items can you think of that I left off the list?

Now this is not purely technology advice, but it will apply to plenty of things in your office. Do expect some delays in delivery and some job queues with companies getting busy finishing off projects or closing of production runs in the factory by the end of December, so don’t wait for the last minute to order whatever it is that you need.

David Markus is the founder of Combo – the IT services company that is known for solving business problems with IT. How can we help?