Grant,

I would find an enrolled agent for your taxes. Accountants
are the worst thing for you if you are wanting to know what
you can and cannot do. My tax guy is not only an enrolled
agent, but is the president of the local association of
enrolled agents. It costs me about $320 last year, with
audit insurance, and I'm damned happy to pay him. I
literally would not still be in business if not for him.

You can lump all your current assets in and depreciate them
over time. If it's not a huge amount, you can probably
depreciate it in a single year. BUT, once you do that, if
you later sell one at more than the depreciated value, you
have to claim the difference as profit and pay taxes on it.
And collect sales tax.

Talk to an enrolled agent, you might be better off leasing
the equipment to the business. Being a lease, the cost is a
write off. And, the money your business is paying your
private self is unearned income which has a tax advantage.
A friend of my dad's ran a business out of his garage in San
Jose for 20 years and leased the machinery to his business.
He's not only a genius with high power electrical stuff, he
really knows the ins and outs of legally keeping as much of
his earnings as possible.

None of the above should be taken as legal advice, tax laws
in Washington are different than California. But an enrolled
agent will know exactly what to do to help you.

Couple years ago, I foolishly signed up for a Trump class.
I'd attended a freebie seminar just to see if I could learn
anything, wasn't really interested in playing in the real
estate market. Wasn't going to sign up for the paid class
until the speaker talked a big story about how the class
would discuss doing business with the government and that
interested me. Anyway, one of the tidbits I did get from the
class was the overwhelming value of enrolled agents. I
already had my tax guy lined up, but it was nice to learn I
had the best guy on my side.

Jon