Student discount

[palatinate11]

I posted a few days ago about buying a powermac.

Anyway, I have another question for the MacRumors forum.

My husband (who will actually hand over the credit card) is starting grad school in a few days. I plan to become a part-time digital graphic design student in the summer term building credits for a certificate. In the meantime I continue to self-teach (am working on PHP and MySQL right now).

Ultimately I would like to charge for web design as a part time gig, and I may even try to do a few paying project in the coming months.

So what do people think about these options:

1. Purchase my/our setup using his student discount? What are the ethical ramifications - technically we are both students, he's official now and I will be part-time soon - but I also hope to charge for services in the near future, services built using this setup. That feels kind of dubious to me, but at some point the manufacturer has got to expect that the student will become a professional - or is there a professional license upgrade that you can buy? (Also, the intent seems to be to try to assist people who are studying, and not having their bills picked up by employers, so that good equipment is more affordable.)

2. Set up my own company and purchase equipment through the company so that I can offset the tax?

I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on both the ethical and financial considerations. I don't want to do anything dishonest, but I don't want to pay too much either!

 

[adk]

Buying hardware with the student issue doesn't seem unethical at all, especially if you or your husband will be using it at all for anything related to education. I know it's a little different, I bought my powerbook with an EDU discount, and I don't feel bad for running a small ebay business. Software, on the other hand is a little different. When you buy educational software technically the license agreement says you can't profit from it. So if you have a heavy conscience, don't buy software with your discount.

 

[aquajet]

1. Purchase my/our setup using his student discount? What are the ethical ramifications - technically we are both students, he's official now and I will be part-time soon - but I also hope to charge for services in the near future, services built using this setup. That feels kind of dubious to me, but at some point the manufacturer has got to expect that the student will become a professional - or is there a professional license upgrade that you can buy? (Also, the intent seems to be to try to assist people who are studying, and not having their bills picked up by employers, so that good equipment is more affordable.)

Well, you are two people, so it seems perfectly reasonable to me that you can each buy your own computer with the student discount.

Here's the eligibility statement from Apple's website:

...I represent that I am a member of one of the defined groups above eligible to purchase and that the products being purchased direct from Apple Computer, Inc. are for my own personal, education, and/or research use.​

I would imagine that your situation would fall under "personal" use. Perhaps if you owned an incorporated business it would be a bit more hazy as to whether or not it would classify as "personal" use.

2. Set up my own company and purchase equipment through the company so that I can offset the tax?

I think that scenario could be problematic considering my last statement above (that is, if you use your student discount, otherwise, it's a legitimate deductable business expense).

Interesting questions to consider, palatinate11

 

[palatinate11]

To clarify - on question 2.

"2. Set up my own company and purchase equipment through the company so that I can offset the tax?"

I meant to say that it's an either-or option. Either we go the student discount route, or I start a company to off-set expenses. I wouldn't try to combine the two.

Any interesting experiences with the company route? I've never set up my own company before and while I am attracted by the business expenses against tax and the official-ness of it all, I am wondering how much of a hassle the registration, bookeeping and everything else that isn't project-specific, might be.

At the moment I am leaning towards the company option, and maybe we'd just use the student discount for any software my husband needs for his work - VectorWorks type stuff. Presumably if he then uses it for professional work he can upgrade the license?

 

[aquajet]

To clarify - on question 2.

"2. Set up my own company and purchase equipment through the company so that I can offset the tax?"

I meant to say that it's an either-or option. Either we go the student discount route, or I start a company to off-set expenses. I wouldn't try to combine the two.

Ah, I see. I would imagine the student discount route would be the easiest, but which one is better for you, I dunno.

 

[palatinate11]

Thanks for your responses. I'm going to look in to setting up a company so I can figure out what might work best for us.