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In partnership with
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Every Saturday, we open the mailbag, pour some strong coffee, and tackle the tax questions keeping America awake at 2 a.m. Here’s this week’s question:
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If I buy a laptop for my freelance work, can I deduct the whole price at once?
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We love buying new tech. We love the smell of unboxing a laptop that doesn’t sound like a jet engine when we open more than three tabs.
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But we hate the math that comes after.
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Usually, the IRS wants you to “depreciate” expensive things. That is a fancy way of saying, “Please calculate how much value your computer loses every day for the next five years, then send us a postcard about it.”
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That sounds like a punishment.
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We have good news. Thanks to a new law with a ridiculously long name, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), you can almost certainly deduct the entire cost of your laptop right now.
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Here is how you dodge the math and get the deduction.
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The “Too Small to Care” Rule (De Minimis Safe Harbor)
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If your laptop cost less than $2,500, the IRS basically doesn’t care about the depreciation math. They have a rule called the “De Minimis Safe Harbor.”
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The Rule: If an item costs under $2,500, you can just treat it as a regular business expense (like paper or ink) and deduct the whole thing immediately.
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The Catch: You have to use the laptop for your freelance work. If you use it 50 percent for work and 50 percent for watching cat videos, you can only deduct 50 percent of the cost.
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The “Big Gun” (100 Percent Bonus Depreciation)
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If you bought a beast of a machine that cost more than $2,500, you used to be out of luck. But the OBBBA changed the game starting in 2025.
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The rule: They brought back 100 percent bonus depreciation permanently.
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What it means: You can deduct 100 percent of the cost of qualified property (like computers, furniture, and machinery) in the year you buy it. You don’t have to spread it out over years.
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The deadline: This applies to property placed in service on or after Jan. 20, 2025.
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The “Netflix” Warning
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Before you go buy a $4,000 gaming rig, remember the Golden Rule of the IRS: You can only deduct the business percentage.
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If you use the laptop 80 percent for freelance design and 20 percent for gaming, you deduct 80 percent of the price. Be honest here. The IRS has no respect for your high score.
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Go get the laptop. You don’t need to do five years of math. You can take the deduction now, save the cash, and get back to work.
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PS: If you have decided that reading about tax regulations on a weekend is a form of mild torture you no longer wish to endure, you can click here to opt out. We’ll miss you, but we won’t hold a grudge.
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