did they get rid of the SUV tax loophole??

Not entirely, last I checked.

 

Yea, I find it fairly hilarious that Bush is screaming for Americans to conserve fuel but still hasn't repealed the big tax break for a business buying a Hummer.

What a two face flip flopper.

 

What? Bush wears flip flops on his face? Where does he hide his second face?

 

this "tax" break allowed the faster depreciation of equipment. given that a business can write off any legitimate expense, it is just a tool for the lefties and enviro wackos to get their base stirred up on issues they know nothing about. namely, running businesses and paying taxes.

 

A "number of years"? Like several DECADES, hasn't it? Wasn't it a tax break designed for farmers and their farm vehicles DECADES ago? And of course, as always, the Lefty Liberals and tree huggers want to blame the law's existance on GWB. Typical Demohogwashery.

 

you are right on the money....a car had to be purchased by last october to get the 100k right off, now it limited to 25k for gvw of over 6000lbs........

 

You can still write off most of the value of the car over a few years period.

 

I doubt they cared then or now. I certainly don't.

The tax break helps many small farmers, that's what it was designed to do. Do big farms, large companies and even non-agrarian businesses(like your local dentist) use the law to their advantage? Certainly. The key issue is that the break really does help the small farmer as it was intended to do.

It would be impossible to write the law in a way that only "small farmers" could take advantage of it.

 

What is the law said it was for farm equipment over 6000lbs exclusively, and must be part of a working farm generating a certain amount of gross income per year to quailify?

Loopholes exist on purpose, although politicians want you to believe it was simply an oversight.

Loopholes exist to help the politician's friends, family and donation contributors. The point of using a CPA instead of doing your own taxes is to learn what loopholes exist that you may benefit from.

 

Define farm equipment. Are you talking tractor and combine? Or perhaps only heavy-duty trucks? Does a half-ton truck count, or only 1-ton trucks? What if the farmer prefers half-ton trucks? What about the SUV he takes the family in to town with but also pulls horse and hay trailers with? The reason they used 6000 lbs.as a marker is that getting any more detailed than that would make the benefit useless.

Working farm? Trying to define that would be even more difficult than trying to guess what type of vehicles a farmer deems necessary.

 

I worked for someone in the restaurant business, he bought his company a pair of Cayennes (it was not standard, forgot if it was Turbo or S, either way, they are all over the weight limit and he like everyone else in small biz was working the "section 179").

 

A simple look at your tax return to determine where in earned income your revenues come from. A working farm should be able to produce a given amount of gross income per acre, even the least profitible crop has some number that would satisfy this criteria. Take the tax return, look it over, is this farmer earning 50% or more of his earned income from this land? If the answer is yes, allow him deductions that you would not allow if the answer was no. Now you have a loophole for farmers, not anyone wishing to purchase a Hummer. If you do not earn >50% of your earned income from farming, you do not qualify for the deduction.

 

the whole point is that the deduction already exists for a business entity.

the only argument here is that of whether you can depreciate the vehicle in the year that you purchase it vs. over its life expectancy.

what you don't hear are all the people getting audited for section 179 vehicle deductions. my cpa has had numerous clients audited. they relied on tax advice from a previous cpa and took the deduction. apparently, the deduction requires you to file a particular form and the IRS is able to determine what type of vehicle is being used. they screen out range rover, bmw, porsche and etc.

you must be able to prove a legitimate business purpose and use. mileage and usage must be documented.

based on his advice, i passed on this some time ago.

 

These loopholes are disqusting. Did he get away with it?

 

I bet no one shows the sold price of that suv on their taxes. Remember that if you sold it for more than it had been depreciated down too there would be a capitol gain!

 

they would have to. unless of course, they just cheated. you can just have a company asset vanish.

 

these loopholes are not disgusting. what you have here are people cheating on their taxes. they might as well be underreporting revenues. if he ever gets audited, he'll be in for a suprise.

 

Didn't realize I was getting riled up?

The number of farmers who earn a majority of their income from the farm is dwindling. The guys this benefit helps are the small farmers. For example guys who operate the family farm at a loss or barely break even and either they work another job as well or another family member earns the bulk of the income. Also, what about farms that are fully operational and beneficial to a community but are supported by other means. For example in my state many farms earn the bulk of their income from oil and gas revenue.

Exactly. The IRS is cracking down on blatant manipulation.

 

Me and my dad got piss when the F550 flat bed we got a few years we could only us it for work and this doctor down the road got hummer the same write off and could use it around Just to show the other side