February 2026 - ATA 2.0

By Michael Laffoon | Managed IT Services Practice Leader & Charles Peery, CPA | Business Tax Practice Leader

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act created a meaningful incentive for businesses that are considering investments in technology. Under the new law, eligible IT hardware purchases now qualify for 100 percent depreciation, allowing businesses to fully expense qualifying equipment in the year it is placed in service.

For many organizations, this creates a timely opportunity to refresh aging hardware, strengthen cybersecurity, and improve system performance—while also maximizing tax benefits. Servers, computers, network equipment, and other qualifying technology investments can now deliver immediate financial value instead of being depreciated over several years.

A smart time to address aging technology

Most businesses keep hardware longer than they should. Servers slow down, laptops struggle to run newer software, and network equipment becomes harder to support and secure. Over time, this leads to more downtime, frustrated employees, and increased cybersecurity risk.

With 100 percent depreciation now available, the cost barrier to replacing outdated equipment is lower than it has been in years. Instead of spreading the expense across multiple tax periods, businesses may be able to deduct the full cost in the year the hardware is placed in service. This can improve cash flow, reduce current tax liability, and make long-needed upgrades more financially practical.

This moment also creates an opportunity to be more intentional about your technology environment. Whether you are dealing with aging laptops, storage limitations, or network reliability issues, upgrading now can help stabilize day-to-day operations while positioning your systems to support growth, security requirements, and future software needs.

Timing and planning matter

While the tax benefit is compelling, timing and coordination are key to realizing its full value. Hardware must be placed in service within the qualifying timeframe, and purchases should align with both operational priorities and broader financial strategy.

Planning ahead helps ensure upgrades are purposeful—not reactive—and that depreciation benefits are captured correctly and efficiently. The most successful upgrades are those that solve real business problems while fitting into a longer-term technology roadmap.

A coordinated approach makes the difference

Upgrading technology is not just an IT decision. It affects how your teams work, how secure your systems are, and how capital investments impact your overall financial picture.

ATA brings these perspectives together. Our advisors help businesses think through how hardware investments fit into broader business and tax planning strategies, including how to time purchases to take advantage of available depreciation benefits. At the same time, our Managed IT team can assess your current environment, identify risks or inefficiencies, and outline practical upgrade paths that support how your organization actually operates.

This coordinated approach helps ensure you are not simply buying new equipment, but making well-timed, well-informed investments that strengthen your business today and prepare it for what comes next.

If you are considering a hardware refresh, this depreciation window creates a rare opportunity to align technology improvements with financial strategy. ATA’s Managed IT team can help you assess your current hardware, prioritize upgrades, and plan timing so your investments truly pay off.

Schedule a complimentary consultation with Michael Laffoon, Partner, ATA Managed IT Services.

Married couples have a choice when filing their 2025 federal income tax returns. They can file jointly or separately. What you choose will affect your standard deduction, eligibility for certain tax breaks, tax bracket and, ultimately, your tax liability. Which filing status is better for you depends on your specific situation.

Minimizing tax

In general, you should choose the filing status that results in the lowest tax. Typically, filing jointly will save tax compared to filing separately. This is especially true when the spouses have different income levels. Combining two incomes can bring some of the higher-earning spouse’s income into a lower tax bracket. Also, some tax breaks aren’t available to separate filers. The child and dependent care credit, adoption expense credit, American Opportunity credit and Lifetime Learning credit are available to married couples only on joint returns. And some of the new tax deductions under 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) aren’t available to separate filers. These include the qualified tips deduction, the qualified overtime deduction and the senior deduction.

You also may not be able to deduct IRA contributions if you or your spouse were covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan such as a 401(k) and you file separate returns. And you can’t exclude adoption assistance payments or interest income from Series EE or Series I savings bonds used for higher education expenses if you file separately. However, there are cases when married couples may save taxes by filing separately. An example is when one spouse has significant medical expenses. Medical expenses are deductible only to the extent they exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income (AGI). If a medical expense deduction is claimed on a spouse’s separate return, that spouse’s lower separate AGI, as compared to the higher joint AGI, can result in a larger total deduction.

Couples who got married in 2025

If you got married anytime in 2025, for federal tax purposes you’re considered to have been married for all of 2025 and must file either jointly or separately. And married filing separately status isn’t the same as single filing status. So you can’t assume that filing separately for 2025 will produce similar tax results to what you and your spouse each experienced for 2024 filing as singles, even if nothing has changed besides your marital status — especially if you have high incomes. The income ranges for the lower and middle tax brackets and the standard deductions are the same for single and separate filers. But the top tax rate of 37% kicks in at a much lower income level for separate filers than for single filers. So do the 20% top long-term capital gains rate, the 3.8% net investment income tax and the 0.9% additional Medicare tax. Alternative minimum tax (AMT) risk can also be much higher for separate filers than for singles.

Liability considerations

If you and your spouse file a joint return, each of you is “jointly and severally” liable for the tax on your combined income. And you’re both equally liable for any additional tax the IRS assesses, plus interest and most penalties. That means the IRS can come after either of you to collect the full amount. Although there are “innocent spouse” provisions in the law that may offer relief, they have limitations. Therefore, even if a joint return results in less tax, some people may still choose to file separately if they want to be responsible only for their own tax. This might occur when a couple is separated.