The end of the year can be a hectic time. On top of all of your practice duties, you also need to  evaluate your profit and loss, assess what worked, identify the gaps in your service, and find new ways to transform your profits into new revenue channels for your hospital. And seriously, who has time for that!! Not you! We got you!  That's why we have compiled this  list of questions you can cover with your accountant. If you haven't you met with your accountant yet, it's TIME! 

1. Can you explain my financial report?

Any decent account will already do this but at your appointment you should ask your advisor to dedicate a few minutes to review your financial report on a high-level. This 10,000 foot view can help you identify room for growth or areas that are taking up a lot of resources while providing little return. Take notes during this review, write down follow-up questions to address, and most importantly be open-minded in regards to their findings.

Areas of Focus:
• Profit and Loss (profit for the year and estimates tax obligations)
• Break-even graph (point you will start making a profit)
• Balance sheet (assets, debts and any initial investments)

2. At what point should I buy capital equipment vs pay personal vs corporate tax?

One must know which tax bracket any expense may cross over and how to define and categorize such expenses.

3. Is it better to lease or purchase capital equipment?

Lease payments on business equipment can usually be used as a deductible business expense. The tax savings from claiming the leases on your business taxes can more than offset the finance costs associated with the lease.

If you buy the capital equipment, you can depreciate the value following the tax rules and if you finance, the interest would be deductible. 

4. How much capital equipment can I buy to maximize my tax credit?

The Section 179 Tax Deduction is meant to encourage businesses to stay competitive by purchasing needed equipment, and writing off the full amount on their taxes for the current year. This free Section 179 calculator is fully updated for 2019 – go ahead, run some numbers and see how much you can actually save in real dollars this year on this calculator.

How Tax Code 179 Works:

Business owners pay lower taxes the year they purchase new capital equipment by deducting the full purchase price but still have the flexibility to buy or lease more equipment to write off in subsequent years.

Request our ultrasound cashflow calculator to estimate capital expense budget.

Need Ultrasound education? Ultrasound is s very user dependent modality. If you're going to add ultrasound in-house, you will need to factor in a budget for hands-on training. Courses usually average around $2500 for 3-day course. Not all education is created equal! Check out our new Veterinary Education Center, focusing on hands-on ultrasound education.