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Section 179 Tax write off for heavy trucks

Dubs

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Anyone planning to take advantage of this deduction with their Rivian? If so, what are some pointers for going about this?
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Gshenderson

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You first need to have a business and business income. To fully depreciate it, the vehicle has to be over 6,000 lbs GVWR. Early indications are that the Rivian will fall just under that threshold. There are other criteria as well, such as what % it will be used for business vs. personal. I’d suggest consulting a tax professional if you are not familiar with these things.
 

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You first need to have a business and business income. To fully depreciate it, the vehicle has to be over 6,000 lbs GVWR. Early indications are that the Rivian will fall just under that threshold.
You are confusing curb weight and gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). The curb weight of the 135kWh Rivian will likely fall just under 6,000 lbs but the GVWR will certainly be well over 6,000 lbs... likely between 7,500 and 8,000 lbs. With the 180kWh battery version possibly approaching 9,000 lbs.

For comparison, the Honda Ridgeline has a GVWR of 6,020 lbs vs a curb weight of ~4500 lbs. While the Tesla Model X exceeds a GVWR of 6,800 lbs but has a curb weight of only 5,200-5,600 lbs depending on model.
 

thrill

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I haven't seen it on the Rivian site in awhile, but Motortrend had given the R1T a GVWR of 7650 lb.
 

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I'm curious on the battery packs relationship to GRVW. The weight of the battery itself or additional towing capacity. I'm assuming the rest of the truck hardware would remain the same. In the chevy world GRVW is mostly a function of tire rating and rear spring in trucks in the 8000-9000 grvw range
 

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thrill

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My guess: while the GVWR will likely not increase based on which battery is installed, as they're unlikely to install different suspension hardware, Rivian also probably won't increase the payload rating for the smaller battery packs.
 

Gshenderson

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You are confusing curb weight and gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). The curb weight of the 135kWh Rivian will likely fall just under 6,000 lbs but the GVWR will certainly be well over 6,000 lbs... likely between 7,500 and 8,000 lbs. With the 180kWh battery version possibly approaching 9,000 lbs.

For comparison, the Honda Ridgeline has a GVWR of 6,020 lbs vs a curb weight of ~4500 lbs. While the Tesla Model X exceeds a GVWR of 6,800 lbs but has a curb weight of only 5,200-5,600 lbs depending on model.
Thx for the clarification @Surferdude!
 

Chris S

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I've previously confirmed GVWR w/ Rivian, and it's well over 6K lbs.
 

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Yeah, I had a brain fart on GVWR vs. curb weight. My bad.

For Section 179, though, you’re still going to have to have a business with income that needs offset in order for it to do you any good. The benefit of Section 179 and meeting the requirements for a “large” vehicle is that you can write off the entire amount in the year you incur the expense vs. having to depreciate the asset over multiple years. But you can’t write off more expense than the business has income. This is all done on Schedule A (Business Income), not your main 1040 or Schedule C where you put your personal deductions. If the amount of your deductions on Schedule A exceed your business income, then you don’t flow a loss through to your 1040, but instead have to “carry over” the loss to the next year and use it to offset business income then - essentially negating the benefit of being able to write it all off in year 1 under 179’s large vehicle rule.
 

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Anyone planning to take advantage of this deduction with their Rivian? If so, what are some pointers for going about this?
You can take a 179 deduction on any vehicle used in business, the 179 just takes it all at once, as a tax professional that leaves you blank for the next few years in that category not always a good idea...
 

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tomis916

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Curb versus GVWR is easily confused. I have been thinking about weight for the purposes of state tax credits. Vehicle weight can also affect the available state credit in Colorado. A quick search and I ran across a picture of a Rivian (in Colorado?).

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Hilbe

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Does the R1S also apply to this law?
 

tomis916

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Does the R1S also apply to this law?
Yes. The rules apply equally to the R1S.

There are lots of nuances to the rules, but one which I don't think was mentioned above is that you can get a partial deduction if the business use is less that 100%, but if the business use is below 50%, Section 179 deductions are not permitted. And, if you take a Section 179 deduction and business usage later drops below 50%, there can be a recapture of a portion of the deduction.
 

CO-rayman

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Yes. The rules apply equally to the R1S.

There are lots of nuances to the rules, but one which I don't think was mentioned above is that you can get a partial deduction if the business use is less that 100%, but if the business use is below 50%, Section 179 deductions are not permitted. And, if you take a Section 179 deduction and business usage later drops below 50%, there can be a recapture of a portion of the deduction.
Thanks for clarifying this.

Is there a deadline for the recapture? In other words, for how many years do you have to maintain the 50%+ business usage when you take the section 179 deduction?
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