During 2022, I bought a new personal laptop. It replaced a previous laptop, which I used while I was self-employed and claimed as a business expense when I bought it. Several years ago, I closed my business to return to work for someone else full-time. I bought a fairly expensive new laptop thinking that I might eventually use it for freelancing on the side, although this hasn't happened and it won't in the foreseeable future.
However, one of my main uses of this new laptop is to research, buy, and sell stocks. That's probably at least 25% of its usage. The research is fairly time-consuming each month since I currently own about 60 stocks and I look at buy/sell ratings, view forecasts, evaluate the health of the companies I invest in, and read company news before I decide how much to buy or sell. This includes all of the stocks that I own and other stocks on my watchlist.
That being said, I don't do investing for a living, and I don't expect that I will. This past year, my investments (and their sales) were a net loss, as I would expect for a lot of people in 2022. My only investments are these stocks, a few ETFs, and my retirement accounts. I also don't have an LLC or corporation for handling these investments, just a personal account with my stockbroker.
I'm asking this here because TurboTax asked me, "Any Investment Equipment? Did you buy or own computers or other equipment used to manage your investments?" Is the cost of this new laptop a deduction that someone like me can legitimately claim?
