The Luxury All-Terrain Boondoggle

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/opinion/10FRI3.html

October 10, 2003
The Luxury All-Terrain Boondoggle

Tax-bill writers in the Senate are trying to curtail a notorious "business" write-off of tens of thousands of dollars on the cost of an oversized sports utility vehicle, a gilded loophole the affluent have been driving behemoth Hummers and Cadillacs and Lincolns through at taxpayers' expense.

-snip-

S.U.V. dealers lost no time in seizing on this selling point, even including the tax write-off possibilities in ads as that ultraluxury extra. Buyers are lured by deductions of up to $100,000 of the cost if they are bold enough to claim full-time business use of an S.U.V.; a 50 percent business claim can net a $50,000 write-off. The maximum used to be $25,000 for small-business equipment, but it was raised to $100,000 as part of the Bush package of outsized tax-cut sweeteners for the well-off. Under a move afoot in the Senate Finance Committee, the maximum would be cut back to $25,000, which would cover a farm truck or construction-site vehicle. Proponents figure that this would reclaim $130 million a year in revenues that are now lost through subsidizing an outlet for highway hubris.

:P sorry, just reminded me of a Jean Chretien quote.

Business expenses... I swear... the IRS ought to be looking out for that crap.

This piggy smells. I'll bet Ahnold took the deduction
on his hummer....some good journalist should find
that out.