Newsletter Nugget - Dental Practice Financial Advisors - Tax, Investment, Practice Management, Legal, and Retirement

What To Do When One Partner Wants To Purchase Expensive New Equipment And The Other Does Not

Let’s say that you want your group practice to purchase a 3-D imaging system which will cost about $175,000.  If you will be the only one using it, your partner(s) may veto the acquisition thinking that they will be sharing in the cost but not getting the benefit.  We think that the practice should still purchase the equipment and finance it over a period of years.  The corporation will pay off the loan, but the doctor using the equipment will, indirectly, be paying for it by taking a reduced share of the practice profits.  Another way to structure this, which adds some complexity, is for the interested doctor to form a new business entity which purchases the equipment and then leases it to the practice.