Buying your copiers and printers means you need to keep them at least 3 to 5 years. But if you’ve invested a lot of money in the copier, you may not be able to replace it as often as you’d like. Technology changes rapidly. Five years from now, your state-of-the-art copier will be out of date. Your equipment can become obsolete long before your can buy new equipment. That is a major concern for some companies.

Leasing equipment is an easy way to avoid obsolescence. However, businesses that only require basic printers and copiers are usually less affected by obsolescence than those that rely on highly specialized printers with specific high-tech features. Older copiers also tend to have higher per-page printing costs.

When a company leases printers, there is no resale or disposal hassle. Leasing is also convenient because most equipment providers offer maintenance plans, which can be included in the lease itself or paid for separately. Companies with limited IT staff often choose to lease for maintenance purposes alone.

Knowing exactly how much you’ll pay each month for the copier is helpful for budgeting purposes. When you enter a lease, you sign up to a fixed rate. This means the rate is fixed for the lifetime of the lease agreement. Even if lease and loan rates rise in the future, you are still paying the same rate you originally agreed to at the signing of your lease.

When the lease term expires, you can trade-in your old copier for a newer model with better technology. Also, you business may change in the future and you may have different requirements. You may have find yourself with more employees or a new product line or a relocation.

There is a clear advantage to leasing when it comes to the depreciating asset of a large machine (or several large machines for that matter). With a lease, the entire copier lease payment is deductible immediately and, since you don’t actually own the device, it is not a depreciating asset. When you purchase a copier, printer, MFP or scanner, you have to capitalize the unit(s) as an asset and then depreciate them slowly over time according to the proper depreciation schedule.

Much like computers, copiers lose most of their value in just a few short years. An expensive, high-end copier won’t garner much profit when it comes time to resell it. In fact, many companies end up sending 3 year-old equipment to the recycler.

Under a typical lease scenario, there is no need to record future lease payments as liabilities, meaning that your business doesn’t incur the additional liability of a very expensive machine (or series of machines). That will typically free up more available credit for use in expanding or maintaining your business.

One thing that often gets overlooked with a lease vs. buy comparison is that you can often lease a much larger machine than you could afford to purchase outright. In many businesses that can lead to increased productivity, reduced downtime and greater efficiencies and opportunities. Leasing offers you the potential to acquire the use of a machine that you would otherwise not be able to afford or integrate into your operations.