Depreciation lets you deduct the cost of a work vehicle over its useful life instead of all at once. But for contractors driving heavy trucks and vans, several provisions in the tax code allow you to speed up that deduction dramatically and sometimes take most of it in the first year.

The biggest factor is your vehicle’s gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). The IRS treats vehicles over 6,000 pounds GVWR very differently from lighter ones. Most contractors are already driving trucks that qualify. Ford F-250 and above, RAM 2500 and above, Chevy Silverado 2500, Ford Transit cargo vans, and Sprinter vans all clear that threshold. If your work truck is over 6,000 lbs, you open the door to much larger write-offs through Section 179.

Section 179 lets you deduct a large portion of the vehicle’s purchase price in the year you buy it. For heavy pickup trucks with a bed of six feet or longer, you can potentially deduct the full cost up to the annual Section 179 limit. For SUVs and crossovers over 6,000 lbs, there’s a separate lower cap (around $30,500 in recent years, adjusted annually). This is why the advice to “buy a truck before year end” gets thrown around so much. It works, but only if the vehicle is genuinely used for business.

Bonus depreciation provides an additional accelerator. It has been phasing down from 100% in recent years, so the amount you can claim this way depends on when you purchase the vehicle. Combined with Section 179, these provisions can let you write off most or all of a heavy work truck in year one. This is the kind of thing worth discussing as part of a broader tax strategy rather than figuring out after the fact.

For lighter vehicles under 6,000 lbs GVWR, the rules are much less generous. The IRS applies annual depreciation caps regardless of what the vehicle cost. A $50,000 sedan might take five or six years to fully depreciate because first-year deductions are capped around $20,000 and drop from there.

Business use percentage is critical no matter what you drive. If your truck is used 75% for business and 25% for personal trips, you only get to deduct 75% of the depreciation. The IRS expects documentation here, especially during an audit. Keep a mileage log or use a tracking app throughout the year. Reconstructing mileage from memory after the fact is unreliable and won’t hold up under scrutiny.

You’ll also need to decide between the standard mileage rate and the actual expense method. Standard mileage is simpler because depreciation is baked into the per-mile rate. The actual expense method lets you deduct fuel, insurance, repairs, and depreciation separately. For most contractors with expensive work trucks and high operating costs, actual expenses usually produce a bigger deduction. But once you choose actual expenses in the first year, you generally can’t switch to standard mileage for that vehicle later.

None of this works if your records don’t support it. You need the purchase price documented, the date you started using the vehicle for business, your business use percentage, and mileage tracking. A Long Beach bookkeeper who understands how contractors operate can make sure these deductions are captured correctly in your books so they hold up at tax time and beyond.