Printer Leasing - Should you do it & how does it work?

When it comes to office operations, printing can be both an asset and a liability. Printers are often seen as necessary evils within businesses – they are necessary for smooth operations yet can cause headaches when it comes to cost and maintenance.

In this post, we’ll explore how to make printing work for your business through printer leasing – a cost-effective alternative to buying a printer outright, and one with several legal advantages.

Printer Leasing

Printer leasing facilitates bit-by-bit payments to essentially hire, rather than buy, a printer. A typical lease lasts between three to five years and is a binding contract. This means that once the lease is taken out, you are legally obligated to your monthly payments for the agreed time ^[1].

Early termination may incur a fee, so it’s crucial to be confident that your business will require the leased printer for the contract duration. Printer leasing is most beneficial for businesses that see printing as an operational focal point.

The Legal Angle

Printer leases are legally binding agreements, usually lasting for three to five years. These may make them much more suitable to enterprise or scale-up clients who are willing to make such commitments, unlike a fledgling startup.

Significant fees may be incurred for early termination, and there’s also a ‘service contract’ that covers:

• regular servicing
• call-out repair
• ink
• and toner replacements.

Understanding these legal responsibilities and their implications is important when considering a printer lease. Also, always ensure to review contract terms carefully or consult a legal advisor when setting up a leasing agreement. This takes us nicely onto our next point – legality in the world of printer leasing – a matter that can actually help reduce business risk.

The Legal Benefits of Printer Leasing

A bit like renting a flat rather than owning a flat - printer leasing helps to reduce the financial risk of owning a printer. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Contractual Obligation: This keeps the relationship between your business and the printer supplier regulated by a legally binding agreement, mitigating risks associated with conflicts or misunderstandings about service provision.
2. Tax Benefits: Leasing payments can be counted as a business cost, making your payments 100% tax-deductible, contrary to capital allowances when you buy assets for your business use.
3. Updated and Compliant Technologies: Leasing enables your business to keep up with technological advances, ensuring compliance with ever-changing regulations around data security, privacy, and environmental sustainability. In other words - don’t buy a dodgy second hand printer that requires you to go all ‘office space’ on it. (Google ‘office space printer scene’ to get the cult-reference).
4. Asset Management: At the end of the lease agreement, there’s flexibility to either end, renew, or upgrade your lease, or even to buy the printer (just like on PCP Car Finance deals where you have a balloon payment).

This flexibility can enable businesses to manage assets better, gracefully adapting to change rather than being stuck with potentially outdated equipment.

The Sustainable Advantage

Ever wondered what to do with a printer nearing the end of its lifecycle? Disposing of this bulky kit is neither easy nor always the most environmentally friendly option.

Printer leasing offers an excellent solution, as the lease agency is typically responsible for this, taking the burden of reuse, resale, recycle and disposal in order to minimise their losses, in turn encouraging a more circular and sustainable economy.

If you buy a printer - you’ll eventually outgrow it, and chances are you’ll just task someone with disposing of it without giving that much consideration. Leasing companies are experts in this area so it’s just greener on average I’d say.

Selecting the Right Printer to Lease

OK now we’re talking.

Selecting the right printer for your business is crucial to ensure optimal performance while minimizing operational issues. Consider

• print speed (measured in pages per minute or ppm),
• paper size and volume requirements
• connectivity
• the functional needs of your office
  For instance, if you routinely print high volumes, a high-speed printer might be best. If most of your print jobs are in black and white, a monochrome printer could be more cost-effective.

By identifying your specific requirements, you can lease a printer that matches your needs perfectly, rather than over-spending on multifunction printers with features your business seldom uses.

Wrapping Up: How Genie AI can Help Your Business

Understanding and managing contractual obligations in a printer lease can be a challenge, but a powerful tool like Genie AI can make it easier. Genie AI is an AI Legal Assistant designed for drafting, reviewing, and negotiating legal agreements.

Use Genie AI to navigate printer leasing contracts and manage them efficiently. In this way, you can focus on growing your business instead of worrying about contract minutiae.

In conclusion, while printers were once viewed as a necessary expense, printer leasing has transformed them into sustainable assets that can improve the legal foundations of businesses.

Don’t let printing be a liability - choose leasing and transform this aspect of your business to become a tax-efficient asset.

Reduce legal and financial risks by signing up to Genie AI today.

Endnotes

1. Leasing a printer might not be ideal if your business needs a more temporary printing solution. In this case, you might be better off renting rather than leasing. Rentals offer short-term flexibility with short notice periods but don’t come with the benefit of owning the printer at the end of the lease. ↩

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