Here’s a tax myth that refuses to die: buy furniture yourself and rent it to your S or C corporation—or own it and have the corporation reimburse you—to pull money out of the corporation more efficiently than simply having the corporation buy the furniture outright.

It feels true. It isn’t.

Consider this case: You buy $100,000 of ordinary business furniture that depreciates to zero and has no resale value at the end. You rent the furniture to your corporation.

Run the numbers, and you’ll find that the rental and reimbursement routes deliver exactly what a straight corporate purchase delivers—the same deduction, the same dollars—while stacking on hurdles and a trap the purchase never touches.

Let’s see why the myth is ... Log in to view full article.