quintessent's Journal: My SUV is bigger than yours

I heard something really odd on the news not too long ago. It was about the way U.S. auto makers were justifying building bigger and bigger vehicles. They cited a study that if a car weighs 100 pounds more than your car, you have a higher chance of fatality. So I guess the idea is to sell cars so big that everyone will have a car that's bigger than every other car on the road.

It sounds like something Dr. Seuss could write about.

SUV, truck owners get a big tax break

[willpost]

12/18/2002
At the same time the tax code sanctions $30,000 write-offs for SUVs, prospective purchasers of a fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles qualify for a relatively small $4,000 tax credit.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2002-12-18-suv -tax-break_x.htm [usatoday.com]

Re:SUV, truck owners get a big tax break

[bofkentucky]

Okay, that looks legit in my book, it is a business stimulus item. My company has a fleet of 1 ton trucks and 3/4ton suburbans and then a fleet of smaller fords (4 door sedans) and "small" suv's (GMC jimmy's). The sales/marketing people use the smaller cars, but our engineers need heavy 4 wheel drives to get to most of our cell sites and fiber nodes/repeaters with replacement equipment. There are similar deductions for farm equipment in the tax codes that are just as bogus by your estimation. I'm all for tax reform, but lets do it in a fair and equitable manner. There are plenty of businesses that don't need that break, but some of us could use it in legit manner.

Re:SUV, truck owners get a big tax break

[GMontag]

Actually, there is somethinng wrong with that article.

He was able to write off $32,000 of the purchase price as a business expense.

two paragraphs later

At the same time the tax code sanctions $30,000 write-offs for SUVs, prospective purchasers of a fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles qualify for a relatively small $4,000 tax credit.

So, how did this guy "write off" more than is "allowed"? Perhaps the article was written by someone that does not know anything about accounting?

What the article is describing is accelerated depreciation. I am always at a loss as to why anybody thinks this ia "bad", from the hysteria spreading writers to the people that read the articles.

Also, I have yet to see the term $75,000 refrencing a "tax break" within an article on this, even though it appeared in titles frequently.

My opinion, any business expense should be allowed as an expense.

Here is an article on the 100 Lb. deal [nationalreview.com].