On Wed, 18 Apr 2018 21:28:11 EDT, ladyG wrote:
>
> I am a small business person.
>
> To be able to get depreciation on my business tax return for my
> car, does the IRS require that the car have been bought in the name
> of the business?
>
> And should the auto insurance on the car be in the business name
> too?
>
> Anything else that I should do as a small business owner with
> respect to the car?
I haven't seen any answers to this yet, so I'll pitch in.
You didn't mention what is probably a key point: how is the business
organized? Is it a sole proprietorship, a corporation (and what
kind), a partnership (and what kind)?
You should look at
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p334.pdf
(Tax Guide for Small Business), which I easily found by searching
"business use of personal car" (without quotes) at
www.irs.gov.
At a quick perusal, I saw no requirement to put the car or the
insurance in the name of the business. I'm sure there was no such
requirement for all the years I operated a sole proprietorship.
You do need to keep meticulous records, to document business versus
personal use of the car. Since you have to keep the records anyway,
you might think about just using the standard mileage rate (53.5
cents a mile, in 2017). That's much easier than figuring depreciation
and allocating that as well as insurance and other costs. Plus, you
don't have to worry about recapture of depreciation when you sell or
trade in the car.
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://BrownMath.com/
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
Shikata ga nai...