Identify the actual ownership and transaction rather than equate use with purchase.
Read the asset schedule with the underlying agreements
A supplier-owned or leased item may have a legitimate operational role, but its value should not automatically be presented as property acquired by the investor. Explain what was actually paid and committed.
Mere use does not establish the amount of the investor's committed capital. Go through every asset on the business's equipment or inventory list and match it to a bill of sale, lease, consignment agreement, or supplier contract that shows who actually holds title and what the investor paid or pledged. Property the investor leases or that a supplier owns can support daily operations without its market value becoming qualifying capital, although lease or rent payments may be counted within the limits in the official guidance. E-2 separately requires treaty nationality for the investor and the enterprise, a substantial investment relative to this business, a real operation that is not marginal, and the investor's ability to develop and direct it, ordinarily through at least half ownership or genuine operational control. None of that turns borrowed or leased equipment into purchased capital. The mistake is inflating the investment total with property the investor does not own.
Hypothetical example: A furniture restorer near Saint-David-de-Falardeau is buying a workshop whose listed equipment includes a finishing booth still owned by a supplier under a service contract. She separates the booth from tools she is actually purchasing, confirms the supplier arrangement in writing, and reports as invested capital only the funds she has committed and put genuinely at risk.