Tax benefit of Ferrari lease

This is one of those great statements that is true or false depending on your perspective. The dealer didnt lie to you as most Ferraris that arent paid in cash are in fact leased over financed.

But most Ferraris are paid in cash.

 

New car sales? I'd be surprised. I would actually guess that more than half of new Ferraris really are leases by now. The entry level model pushes $275k. The rest run $300-425k. That's lot of coin even for a high income earner... and there's a difference between having $275k and wanting to spend all $275k in one shot. (Nevada will add another $5,000 to register a car that expensive too!)

 

I read it a couple years ago in what i remember to be a reliable source, but i dont remember where.

 

BRANDS WITH HIGHEST LEVELS
OF LEASE PENETRATION IN 2016

Infiniti 63%
BMW 58%
Lexus 55%
Audi 52%
Volkswagen 51%
Mercedes-Benz 50%
Jaguar 48%
Land Rover 48%
Lincoln 48%
Acura 46%

 

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/the-most-commonly-leased-car-brands-in-america-and-the-most-commonly-purchased

Surprised, it says (beginning of 2016) only 4% for Ferrari. 74% for Maserati!

 

Honestly I would not really be thrilled to own any of those cars outside of warranty so leasing a new car is probably the way to go. That's assuming you plan on using the car and relying on it for daily needs.

 

Yes with a lot of them you start playing air suspension or electronic module roulette...

 

You have to wonder if this is by design.

 

^^^^^This right here. The dealership gives buyers every available option for one sole purpose. That purpose is to sell you a car. Period. They have to move units to get their incentives and bonuses from the parent company. And if they are encouraging financing or leasing they in all likelihood are getting something on the back end. Nothing for nothing in Ferrari or in any other car sales world.

 

I think her response registered pretty damn high on the sarcasm scale...

 

Dealer I bought mine from told me a story of a pizza shop owner who leased his, got audited and told them it was necessary for hosting club events at his place, walked away no issues.

 

You heard all kinds of stories.

 

A lease is one thing but as a business expense probably will = an audit. IMHO it’s a bad idea. Best , Kirk.

 

The pizza shop owner is a tale thats been told for two decades. I started hearing it when i bought my first Ferrari. There has never been any proof its true.

 

My neighbor dog sat for a couple whose daughter dated a guy who read a story on Facebook that.....

Did you call your dealer on his BS or passing it along as legit?

 

Ah statler you’re always so witty, you want the dealers number so you can call up and let him know you think his story was bs? I don’t see why a dealer would make up such a lame ass story but sure he probably was full of it

 

So did you believe his crap and pass it along here as true or was it a post about the crap dealers say to get people into cars?

 

I can tell you a pizza related tax story, because it ended up in Tax Court. Dude owned a small chain of franchise pizza stores. He was unhappy with the way his marketing money was being spent so he decided to sponsor a car race team. It just happened he also owned the race team. The pizza shops wrote off the payments as advertising. Because racing is a tuff bidness, it never made any money. Life is good.

Surprisingly, the Tax Court agreed. I guess if Budweiser can do it, why not a pizza chain?

Note: Dude also tried to write off the apartment he rented for his paramour. Didn't work. Typical client though. Most entrepreneurs are ******* crazy. The stories I could tell.

 

I only know of one person (though I’m sure there are plenty more that I don’t personally know) that bought a Ferrari as a business expense, and actually only used it for business. He then sold it after a year and a half. Of course he owns an automotive accessory company, and usually takes 2 or 3 vehicles to shows thruout the year including SEMA. But the caveat was it was only taken to shows and events and that I know of was not ever driven for personal use. He got the thing more to draw people to his display then anything else and I seem to recall it had just over 1k miles when he sold it. But I think this situation and a person wanting to drive and own one are 2 different things.

 

Good point. I know of one case where a Ferrari was used solely for advertising.

 

Also, the thing that trips most people up is the commuting rule. The first trip from home to office and the last trip from office to home are commuting miles and are NEVER considered as business use. It doesn't matter if you are a doctor and are on call 24/7. Tough cookies.

Now, if you happen to have an office at home, you no longer have commuting so long as your first and last stops are your home office. Put that one in your pipe.

 

The guy I know is also an avid car and motor cycle enthusiast and owns a rather large collection of cars. I know he has since bought as many as 4 Ferrari’s for his personal collection. He has one of his storage facilities set up like an old car dealer and rotates a lot of his collection out of the showroom area for display and has another huge building for storage. I often see him on Barrett Jackson bidding.

I don’t talk to him as much as I used to since I moved but he was very clear about how you were able to deduct vehicle expenses for business use. When I started my business he was very instrumental in helping me figure out a lot of the things I didn’t know back in the day and vehicles for business use was one area he stressed since I needed vehicles for business use. I still buy products his company manufactures for use on my vehicles. Interestingly he reccomended buying the vehicles outright for service vehicles, and said he only leased the vehicles the sales team and upper management used since he traded up every 2 years and nearly every vehicle he leased for the company were vehicles that the company manufactured parts for.

I owe a lot of my business sence to that guy. I also gained a broader appreshiation for cars and trucks in general because of him.

 

yeah, I heard that too.

 

Excellent first post and thread resurrection. Welcome.