do you buy or lease your mixer/recorder?

[mikebarber]

please forgive if this is a silly question (or wrong forum) but i was wondering if everyone’s buying their mixer/recorders (which are very expensive, for good reason) or if anyone leases theirs. there are always arguments for both options when it comes to other things (like cars, computers, etc) but what about professional tools that also experience evolution in technology over time?

 

as someone who is looking ahead to eventually build their kit, the prospect of dropping thousands of dollars at once to own is daunting, but leasing isn’t as scary. but what do i know? there may be things i’m not taking in to consideration that i should.

[IronFilm]

Everything I own, I have bought outright. (only thing I ever got a loan for was for my University fees)

I see two ways to look at it:

If you're starting out, then it is easy enough to buy a sub $1K recorder (such as Zoom F8n/F4 or Sound Devices MixPre6) from money you've saved up from your bartending / uber / walmart / whatever side job. 

If you're a full time professional, then a few thousand dollars for a recorder shouldn't be an impossibly large business expense to do once every few years. 

 

[JonG]

Leasing would make things easier, but many suppliers don’t offer leasing options. That said, it is never a good idea to put gear on credit. That’s an easy way to get into trouble. I’ve always bought my equipment with money that I made doing sound, so as to keep myself honest and out of debt. So I highly recommend setting your sights on what you need and saving for it, buying one thing at a one in order of necessity. Also keep in mind that making baby step purchases will ultimately cost you more and you’ll likely be unable to sell your baby-step items later on without taking a loss on them. But we all have our own road to go down so what’s right for one may not be right for another. 

[IronFilm]

A counter perspective I'd give is that your intermediate purchases do serve as absolutely fantastic back up gear for when you "upgrade", and in the long run it is a key aspect that all professionals should have is back up gear available that they also know inside and out. So I wouldn't regard the money spent on intermediate gear along the way as being completely wasted. 

[Jakobk]

You should talk with your tax/business consultant about that question. 

It makes total sense to lease things but if it does for relatively cheap items like sound gear, I think I can't give a general answer.

[engaudio]

I lease my Sonosax SXR4+ mixer, mainly because I didn't want to spend my capital and keep some of it in reserve for a slow period. ($12K in my currency Vs 633 @ $6.5K).

After years of always paying cash I weighed up the options and decided to play the long game this time.

You really need to talk to a Tax accountant, this is their field of expertise, we are mostly sound mixers here..

But in saying that, if you're a mixer for the long term (as I am) it can make good business sense regarding cashflow. 

 

Grant. 

[Jay Rose]

If you’ve got the capital, it’s  what I call a “spreadsheet decision”. 

 

Lease? What’s the total of your payments over time. Plus any cost to buy outright at the end of the term. Less how much the money you didn’t spend upfront would have earned you (here’s where the recursive feature of a spreadsheet really comes in handy, since that principal decreases with each lease payment).

 

Buy? What’s the best cash deal you can make. Less any resale value if you don’t intend to keep it. 

 

If if you don’t have the capital, you still might be able to get a better deal ( or used or demo gear, often not available on lease) by borrowing cash, possibly secured by other gear. Often the interest rate will be less... and the loan may have better early termination terms than a lease, if you get some extra bucks and want to buy it out. 

 

In my experience, the tax implications are often minor. You can deduct lease payments... but you can depreciate owned equipment. Under current US law, you may be able to expense the entire price of owned equipment the first year. But I’m not a lawyer or tax accountant... the rules for you - even in the US - may be different.