Ranch Systems, a leading provider of monitoring and control solutions for growers, is now offering US and Canadian customers a capital equipment lease as an alternative to purchase. This lease, offered through Paramount Financial Services (Scottsdale, AZ), requires no payment for the first 90 days, has a term of 1 to 5 years, and includes installation and service as well as equipment costs. It significantly conserves cash for growers and provides tax advantages.
Many growers want to implement advanced remote monitoring and/or control in their fields or replace dated systems, but are constrained by relatively large initial outlay costs or by limited budgets. To address this need, Ranch Systems teamed up with Paramount Financial Services to offer a flexible, simple and rate competitive capital equipment lease. The lease is based on a 6-8% financing rate and does not require collateral or extensive documentation. The actual rate is based on the grower’s credit worthiness and the simple one page application is reviewed and approved in the same day (or over the phone while waiting). The way the lease works is that Paramount Financial Services purchases the equipment from Ranch Systems or participating dealers like Advanced Viticulture (Windsor, CA). The system gets installed, and the grower pays a monthly lease payment to Paramount Financial Services which covers the cost of the equipment, installation labor, training as well as software and cellular charges (for the life of the lease). At the end of the lease term, the grower pays a $1 buyout fee. There is no prepayment penalty if the lease is bought out early.
For example, instead of a capital expenditure of $20,000, a grower can lease the same system for $451.24 per month for 60 months. The other chief benefit of a capital equipment lease is that it is treated as a purchase loan from a tax perspective; the entire cost of the equipment/installation/service can be depreciated under Section 179 of the Federal tax code in the year the lease was exercised. In addition, the total interest paid every year can be deducted as an expense. From a credit perspective, a lease is not considered debt like a loan and does not appear on credit reports.
“With the capital equipment lease from Paramount Financial, I can equip vineyards with Ranch Systems state-of-the-art monitoring technology without the grower having to make a large capital expenditure or feel like they are taking a risk. It also enables an operation to leverage its available capital to implement technology more broadly in a single growing season rather than in steps over a series of seasons,” states Mark Greenspan, President of Advanced Viticulture. “An important feature of the lease is that it bundles installation, training, cellular charges and the software service along with equipment into one, low monthly payment.”
