how much youll borrow and what your payments will be.     You can complete the forecasts without showing any loans or payments. Then use the results to decide how much money youll borrow and revise the forecasts to include loan payments.     You can complete both forecasts with out showing any loans at all. Then you can include a discussion about how much money youll need to borrow and the cash flow available to make repayments. (See your Plan Summary discussion in.)     There are loan progress charts and computer programs that show approximately how much of any payment is interest and how much is principal. Or you can use the Loan Interest Calculation Chart in using the sample below as an example.     WarningYou cant write in the entire loan payment amount on your Profit and Loss Forecast, because the IRS does not consider principal repayments fixed expenses that can reduce your taxable income.     NoteNote of sanity: You dont need to be perfect in forecasting your interest costs. Just make your best informed guess. You can also check with your banker, CPA, realtor or bookstore for loan repayment tables. Make sure the sum of your interest payments here and the principal payments from equals the total loan payment.     4h.Depreciation. Depreciation is a gift to the businessperson from Uncle Sam. Ask not what your country can do for you-this is it. Depreciation is an amount you can subtract from your profits when you pay taxes. It compensates you for the fact that your business equipment and buildings are wearing out. The government allows you to assume that your fixed assets wear out over some period of years, meaning that for tax purposes, your assets are worth less at the end of that period. Your depreciation allowance simply lets you show a percentage of this wear as an expense on your tax return each year. In a sense, it is a sinking fund for equipment replacement, or would be if you put the depreciation amount in the bank. In actuality, the stuff usually lasts longer than your depreciation shows, which is why depreciation can be seen as a friendly federal gesture. Often, equipment is depreciated over three to five years and buildings over fifteen to thirty years for tax purposes. Its not your choice, however; the IRS publishes very explicit rules and lists of what can be depreciated and how fast. These lists and rules change frequently, so youll probably need to check with your tax advisor about depreciation and fixed assets.     You can depreciate all fixed assets that last longer than one year. Remember, you dont show the purchase price as an expense on the Profit and Loss Statement if you depreciate an item.     If the asset will last less than one year, you simply show the entire purchase price in the expense column for the year you bought the equipment and do not depreciate it. Inventory of goods available for resale and consumable supplies are examples of purchases that are expensed immediately because they last less than one year.     Example:Chuck Leong expects to spend $20,000 for fixed assets to open his business. Items include a new toilet, several new walls, a cash register, a small computer and store fixtures. Assuming Chucks accountant agrees that five years is the proper timeframe to use for depreciation, he can take $333 as an expense for depreciation each month ($20,000 divided by 60 months).     4i.-4n. Other Expenses. Inevitably, you will encounter a number of other expenses, depending on your business. Spend some time thinking about these using the accompanying list as a starting