Hello,

I believe I finally got a handle on section 179 as it relates to my business but I thought I'd double check. I run a company that rents out camera equipment. We started up this year so we have a lot of equipment expenses that I'd like to use the 179 deduction with. My understanding is that since our trade or business is renting the equipment it is ok to use section 179. Am I understanding that correctly?

Thanks,
Jason

Since, it seems you have read up on this subject extensively, I will restrict my answer to your specific situation. In order to meet the IRS requirements your Camera Equipment must meet the following conditions as follows:

1. The property must be a Qualified Property
The IRS rules state that in order to qualify for this deduction, it must be New Camera Equipment that is placed in the business in Tax Year 2007 in order to claim this deduction. Also, for the Camera Equipment to be eligible for the Section 179 deduction, the asset must be used at least 50% for business in the first year it is placed in service. The "cost eligible" for the section 179 deduction is the business usage percentage. (Cost of New Equipment x Business Usage Percentage)

2. You must meet the taxable limitation rules.
In order for you to take this Section 179 Election, you must meet this taxable income limitation rule. The IRS basically does not want the taxpayer to generate a taxable loss if this election is taken, hence a restriction is established that limits the amount of Section 179 deduction to an amount such that the Net Income does result in amount less than Zero! So, in short, you may claim the section 179 up to the amount equal to the lesser of taxable income or the amount qualified for Section 179!
Hopefully, you have taxable income from either the business or other active income that exceeds this section 179 amount you are hoping to claim.

3. Section 179 Subject to Phase-Out Rules
To prevent abusive tax shelters by the Super Wealthy, the IRS has established a phase out of the allowable Section 179 deduction for substantial new §179 qualifying property being purchased during the tax year. For each dollar of newly acquired qualifying property purchased during the tax year that exceeds the amounts established by the IRS, the Section 179 deduction is reduced by a dollar; but not below zero. For 2007, that phase-out begins at $500,000, hopefully, this situation would not apply in your case.

A further discussion on this subject can be found by clicking on the IRS link below.
Publication 946 (2006), How To Depreciate Property

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Thanks, thats helps quite a bit. The whole rental property portion was really throwing me off. I'm glad to hear that I should be able to take advantage of since it should be a real help.

You are welcome!

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I'm a credit analyst at a national equipment finance company. This time of year, we get tons of questions concerning Section 179 including your particular question (equipment for rental) - except the equipment is usually yellow-iron rather than camera equipment. We dedicated a page including a simple calculator on the subject: Section 179 Tax Deduction Calculator | CrestCapital.com The answer already given today is perfect information and exactly correct. The quick answer we usually give to "rental yards" is: If the asset is treated as an asset (as opposed to an expense), the asset is qualified for Section 179 as long as it meets the remaining criteria.