Opting out of bonus depreciation allows businesses to spread depreciation deductions over several years rather than taking them all at once. This strategy is primarily used to manage tax brackets by saving deductions for future years with higher expected income, avoiding creating or increasing net operating losses (NOLs), or minimizing state tax compliance complexities.
Con: you cannot use that asset's depreciation again in the future, so you have to consider the potential value of the deduction in the future.
What is the difference between bonus depreciation and section 179? While bonus depreciation and Section 179 are both immediate expense deductions, bonus depreciation allows taxpayers to deduct a percentage of an asset's cost upfront. In contrast, Section 179 allows taxpayers to deduct a set dollar amount.
Yes, 100% bonus depreciation is back for eligible property acquired and placed in service after January 19, 2025, thanks to the "One, Big, Beautiful Bill" (OBBB) Act, which permanently reinstated it, reversing the phase-out schedule that would have reduced it to 40% for 2025 under prior law. This allows businesses to deduct the full cost of new equipment, machinery, and other qualified assets in the first year, significantly impacting tax planning.
What is bonus depreciation? Bonus depreciation is an additional first-year depreciation allowance. According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), bonus depreciation allows business taxpayers to deduct additional depreciation for the cost of qualifying business property, beyond normal depreciation allowances.
Electing out will allow you to offset the higher income with more depreciation expense in the later years. If you plan to sell the purchased property in a year in which you are in a higher tax bracket, any depreciation recapture would be taxed at the higher rate.
The rules for qualified production property is also discussed at Property Qualifying for Bonus Depreciation. A taxpayer must claim bonus depreciation unless an election out is made.
If the individual tax cuts expire, taxpayers in all income groups would face higher and more complicated taxes. Machinery and equipment expensing is a key provision that, if allowed to expire, would especially harm capital-intensive industries like manufacturing.
If the vehicle weighs more than 6,000 pounds and is used more than 50% for business, you can write off up to $28,900 in the first year, and potentially even more with bonus depreciation. Let's break it down: Buy a qualifying vehicle for $60,000, and you could write off a large portion of that cost in year one.
Vehicles qualifying for 100% bonus depreciation are primarily heavy-duty trucks, large vans, and SUVs with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) over 6,000 pounds that are used more than 50% for business, with the full 100% deduction applying to assets placed in service after January 19, 2025, under the OBBB Act, allowing for immediate expensing of the entire cost, unlike luxury cars capped by IRS rules.
Bonus Depreciation is useful to very large businesses spending more than the Section 179 Spending Cap (currently $3,050,000) on new capital equipment. Also, businesses with a net loss are still qualified to deduct some of the cost of new equipment and carry-forward the loss.
Property owners and investors should pay attention here. The OBBB — which was the Trump administration's signature tax and domestic policy bill — officially reinstated 100% bonus depreciation for property acquired after January 19, 2025, and placed in service after that same date.
You can transfer assets to the trust while getting an annuity payment. If the assets in the trust appreciate enough, you can pass that excess value to your heirs with little or no tax. GRATs are a popular wealth transfer strategy with ultra-wealthy Americans.
High-Income Taxpayers Paid the Majority of Federal Income Taxes. In 2022, the bottom half of taxpayers earned 11.5 percent of total AGI and paid 3 percent of all federal individual income taxes. The top 1 percent earned 22.4 percent of total AGI and paid 40.4 percent of all federal income taxes.
No Tax on Overtime is a provision that was included in a larger tax reform bill that passed in July 2025. It allows certain workers to deduct up to $12,500 in qualified overtime compensation from their taxable income on their federal income tax return. Joint filers can deduct up to $25,000.
The 2025 Federal Tax Debate
Much like the 2017 tax law, the new law favors the richest taxpayers. More than 70 percent of the net tax cuts will go to the richest fifth of Americans in 2026, only 10 percent will go to the middle fifth of Americans, and less than 1 percent will go to the poorest fifth.
The main downsides of bonus depreciation include losing future deductions by taking them upfront, potentially increasing future taxable income, facing higher "recapture" taxes if the asset is sold, and dealing with complex rules or state-level nonconformity, making it less beneficial for short-term investors or those in lower tax brackets who might need deductions later. It also creates large upfront tax benefits that might not align with book income, affecting financing, and rules change frequently, requiring constant tax planning.
Yes, you can still take 40% bonus depreciation in 2025 for property acquired on or before January 19, 2025, but for property acquired after January 19, 2025, 100% bonus depreciation is generally reinstated under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) (OBBBA), though you can elect the 40% rate if it's more beneficial. The OBBBA effectively reversed the previous phase-down, making 100% bonus depreciation permanent for new acquisitions after the cutoff date, with options for strategic planning.
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service today issued Notice 2026-11 PDF that provides taxpayers with guidance on the permanent 100% additional first year depreciation deduction for eligible depreciable property acquired after Jan. 19, 2025, provided by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill.