Equipment Depreciation

Well...it's that time of year where those of us operating as a business have to think about what were gonna do at the end of the year to keep the tax man from going whole hog on our bank accounts. This is the part where I tell you to document breakages, repairs, tool purchases and so on. Yep, most of us know that. Not all of you know about maintenance. I keep a vehicle log for my truck, no surprisingly it's August and I've spent eight grand on fuel already. I'm debating tires before years end...I know I can write them off since 90% of my miles are work miles. I even got a second car so I could keep my truck work exclusive. I no longer change my own oil, I have it done at a valvoline quick change where I just drive up and sit in the truck while they do it. Why? That's $42 of valvoline max life, a filter and not having to crawl under my lifted truck to drain oil from three feet up...it's a mess. Plus it's tax deductable. Rotate tires, tax deductable. Eat lunch? Well, half of that is tax deductable. Work more than 12 hours a day, deduct half your dinner too. I do my own taxes and I carefully spend a week or so sorting receipts and adding everything up for deductions about september so I can figure out if I should make a major purchase or put it off based on "depreciable assets". Buying things like trailers, a truck, storage sheds...all of that stuff needs to be decided about now. You figure out how you want next years deductions and breaks to go because that planning can really save you from paying out 2-3000 the next year. You can even deduct at state level for participation in e waste programs, or purchasing energy star equipment. (Yep, computers too.) Check your stuff guys, look up the tax code, spend a night seeing if there are things you could be doing to save some more money. We tend not to do some stuff because we can't afford it, not realizing that some of this stuff is completely deductible.

I will be waiting to buy a truck until next year. I was planning to get the ram ecodiesel 1500 but couldn't justify it over how much I deduct on what I have now, deduction over depreciation for now. My truck as over 225k on it and I know it's not going to last forever but hell, I've stuck money in it and it just keeps going. I bought a trailer last year and am going to enjoy the depreciation this and next year. Anyways, hope this gets people thinking a bit. Have a look, you'd be surprised, some of us spend alot of money on everything from screw guns to bits to bins and totes. You should be taking that off your taxable income.

Fair enough and that works well. I'm just a nitpicker is all. Government isn't doing anyone favors with simplifications...they do it because in the long game it makes them more money.