How do I write off my truck and equipment?

Most of it you can deduct in full the year you buy it, using Section 179 or 100% bonus depreciation, instead of spreading the cost over years. Tools and equipment are the easy part: a one-truck outfit will never come close to the Section 179 cap, so a $4,000 saw is a $4,000 deduction this year. Vehicles are where it gets interesting, because a work truck over 6,000 pounds can be written off far faster than a regular car, and because writing something off fast comes with a trap if you later sell it or stop using it for work.‍‌‌​‌​​​​‌​​‌‌‌‌​​‌‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌‌‌‌​‌‍

The three ways to write off a purchase

• Section 179. Immediate first-year expensing. You elect it on Form 4562 and deduct the whole cost the year the item is placed in service. For 2026 the cap is $2,560,000, and it only starts shrinking once you have placed more than $4,090,000 of equipment in service in the same year. A one-crew outfit is not going to trouble either number. The one limit that can bite: Section 179 cannot create a loss, it can only take your business income down to zero.
• Bonus depreciation. Also 100% first-year, restored permanently for qualifying property placed in service on or after 20 January 2025. Unlike Section 179 it has no income limit, so it can create a loss, and it applies after Section 179 to any cost left over.
• Regular depreciation (MACRS). The default if you elect neither: spread the cost over the asset's life, five years for most equipment and vehicles, seven for some. You would only choose this on purpose, when you would rather save the deduction for a future year you expect to earn more.

For most tools and gear, Section 179 or bonus wipes out the cost in year one and you never think about it again.

The heavy-vehicle rule, the big one for trades

Vehicles are treated differently from tools because the IRS assumes some personal use. The dividing line is 6,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR), which is on the sticker in the door jamb.

• 6,000 lbs GVWR or under (most cars and light SUVs) hit the luxury-auto caps. For a vehicle placed in service in 2026 the first-year deduction is capped at $20,300 if bonus depreciation applies and $12,300 if it does not. After that the IRS caps every following year too:

That is what "takes years" means in practice. A $60,000 sedan used entirely for business reaches $59,160 of deductions at the end of year four and finishes in year five. The same $60,000 spent on a truck over 6,000 lbs can be deductible in full in year one. The caps assume 100% business use; at 60% business use, every figure in that table is 60% of what it says.

• Over 6,000 lbs GVWR (most full-size pickups and cargo vans, typically 6,001 to 8,500 lbs) escapes those caps. Passenger-style heavy SUVs in the 6,001 to 14,000 lb range have their own Section 179 cap, $32,000 for 2026, though 100% bonus depreciation can still apply to a qualifying vehicle.

  The six foot bed is what decides it. The law defines the capped "sport utility vehicle" and then excludes three things from that definition, and the one that matters in the trades is a cargo area of at least six feet of interior length that is open, or capped but not reachable from inside the cab. A crew-cab pickup with a short five and a half foot bed is an SUV for this purpose and hits the $32,000 cap. The same truck with a six foot bed is not, and does not. The other two exclusions are a vehicle seating more than nine behind the driver, and a van with an enclosed driver compartment and no seating behind it, which is most cargo vans. Measure the bed before you sign, because nothing about the two trucks looks different on the forecourt.

• A true work vehicle (a cargo van, a work truck, one clearly not suited to personal use, or anything over 14,000 lbs) has no cap at all. The full cost is deductible.

This is why the truck you buy has real tax consequences. A heavy work truck can be expensed almost entirely in year one, where the same money in a light car dribbles out over most of a decade.

Mileage or actual costs, pick one

There are two ways to deduct a vehicle, and you pick one per vehicle. Standard mileage is 72.5 cents a business mile to 30 June 2026 and 76 cents from 1 July, with depreciation already baked into the rate, so you cannot also depreciate the truck. If you drove across the change, split the miles by date and run the two rates separately. Actual costs means the business-use share of everything: gas, insurance, repairs, and the depreciation or Section 179 or bonus write-off above. Your first-year choice largely locks you in.

For a heavy work truck driven mostly for the business, actual costs with first-year expensing usually beats the mileage rate by a wide margin. Either way, your commute from home to the first site does not count, driving between sites in a day does, and you need a mileage log written at the time to prove the business-use percentage.

The recapture trap

Here is the catch with fast write-offs. If you sell the vehicle or equipment, or your business use of it drops below 50%, the IRS makes you recapture part of the deduction, adding it back as ordinary income in that year. Trade in a truck you fully expensed and a chunk of what you get for it becomes taxable income. The same thing happens if a fully expensed tool becomes mostly a personal item. It is not a reason to avoid Section 179 or bonus, it is a reason to know that a big deduction now can come back later, and to keep the records that let you calculate it correctly. (Home-office depreciation carries a similar recapture when you sell the house, which is covered in the deductions guide.)

Common questions

Can I write off a work truck over 6,000 pounds in one year?

Often yes. A truck or cargo van over 6,000 pounds GVWR escapes the luxury-auto caps. With Section 179 or 100% bonus depreciation you can expense most or all of it in the first year, as long as it is used for business. Check the GVWR on the sticker in the door jamb, and verify the current limits at irs.gov.

What is the difference between Section 179 and bonus depreciation?

Both let you expense a purchase up front, but Section 179 cannot create a loss while 100% bonus depreciation can. Section 179 is applied first and only takes your business income down to zero; bonus depreciation then covers anything left over and can push you into a loss. For most tool buys, either one wipes out the cost in year one.

Can I take Section 179 and the standard mileage rate on the same truck?

No. If you use the standard mileage rate, depreciation is already baked into that per-mile figure. So you cannot also claim Section 179 or separate depreciation on the same vehicle. You choose one method per vehicle, and for a heavy truck driven mostly for work, actual costs with first-year expensing usually wins.

Do I have to depreciate tools, or can I deduct them right away?

You can deduct them right away. Section 179 and bonus depreciation let you expense virtually any tool purchase in full the year you buy it. A small contractor almost never has to spread a tool cost over years. A $4,000 saw is a $4,000 deduction this year.

What happens if I sell a truck I already wrote off?

Part of what you get for it becomes taxable income, through what is called depreciation recapture. Selling or trading in a vehicle you fully expensed adds some of that earlier deduction back as ordinary income in the year of the sale. The same happens if your business use of it drops below 50%.

The honest bit

• These are 2026 federal figures (72.5 cents a mile to 30 June and 76 cents from 1 July, per IRS IR-2025-128 and IR-2026-29, the $2,560,000 Section 179 cap and its $4,090,000 phase-out and the $32,000 heavy-SUV cap, all from Rev. Proc. 2025-32; the $20,300 and $12,300 first-year luxury-auto caps from Rev. Proc. 2026-15; the 6,000 and 14,000 lb breakpoints). Most of them move every year or two. Verify at irs.gov.
• Depreciation is one of the easiest places to get it wrong and one of the places a good CPA most earns their fee. This is general guidance, not tax advice.
• Some states do not follow the federal Section 179 and bonus rules, so your state deduction can differ. See Working in Your State.

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