Time to make Implement Purchase before Jan 1 st.

[smstonypoint]

Are you sure about that? My accountant asks for the purchase date and the date the item was placed in service. They use the placed in service date to decide when the depreciation starts. This is the way I have been doing it for both my business and my farm. I am not sure what would happen if you were ever audited and they found out you did not even have the piece of equipment when you started depreciating it. I don't know if this is right or wrong but this is the way I have been doing it.

I'm not a CPA, but my understanding is that the "half year" convention is the standard -- you claim 1/2 of the first year's depreciation regardless of when the asset was placed in service during the first year. That is, the IRS treats the purchases as if they were made on July 1. That's the way my accountant handles matters.

But the "mid-quarter" convention may come into play for "last minute purchases."

Half-year convention - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steve