How Black Friday Can Benefit the Self Employed

Black Friday is often seen as a great time to pick up some holiday gifts or new goodies for your house. But savvy self-employed workers, like real estate professionals, can use Black Friday sales to buy equipment for their business and then deduct the cost at tax time.

Why Should I Care About Less Expensive Business Equipment?

Some of you might be thinking that the price of your business expenses might not matter because you can write it off anyways. You're right on the second part. The IRS allows you to deduct the cost of virtually any expense related to your business as long as it's ordinary and necessary.

But remember that a tax deduction only helps you when you're filing your tax return. You still have to shell out the money upfront for your equipment. Those dollars can quickly add up. We don't advise buying anything simply for a tax deduction: If your business doesn't need the equipment, don't buy it.

Black Friday is generally aimed at consumers, so don't expect any deals on rent, advertisement or other business-specific costs. But there are two major categories of sales that could be useful for your business: cars and computers.