I made a lot of large gear purchases in 2010 and now have some paying gigs. I hadn't previously wrote-off any photogear but it seems like if I need to pay income taxes on my photo income I should write off my initial expense of buying the gear of depreciate it over 5 years. I am meeting with a CPA tomorrow. Any ideas or suggestions? The last thing I want is an audit since this isn't the primary source of my income.
As long as it is a business expense you can write it off. I am a snowboard instructor so I can write off my gear (including jacket and snowpants, boots, etc.) - I even expensed an entire trip to CO because I went there for training.