Why are there so many SUVs on the road?
"Say you buy $10,000 of business property with a five-year tax life. Under
the midyear convention, your first-year depreciation deduction would be a
healthy $2,000. Choose expensing, though, and you can write off the entire
purchase price on the current year's return. Expensing generally won't let
you deduct $20,000 of the business cost of a car all at once, however,
regardless of how much the car costs. Even under the liberalized "luxury
car" rules okayed in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks,
in the biggest first-year auto write-off for a business vehicle purchased
in 2002 and 2003 is $7,660. (An exception to the luxury car rules allows
you to use expensing if your new business vehicle weighs more than 6,000
pounds. For a car, that's 6,000 pounds empty--so you can forget it; but for
a sports utility vehicle, it's 6,000 pounds including the maximum for
passengers and cargo, so many SUVs can qualify.)"
From taxcut.com
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