Section 179 or Bonus

[BearCreek557]

Hello!

I have started preparing our taxes in desktop turbotax. We are in our 2nd year of farming and while we have income, it is much smaller than the amount of capital investments we made this year. There are a lot of tax changes in 2020. From what I read, Section 179 is limited by farm income (sales) and bonus is not, however, when I toggle between using the bonus option (which would be a good option if we are capped by farm income) or Section 179 for our farm business property, turbotax does not recognize the limit for farm income for Section 179 and the refund amount does not change.  How is this so? My husband does have other income from another job. My initial thought was to use Section 179 so the loss of business income would roll over to future years, however, if there is a farm income limit for 2020, then I would use bonus for some of our asset classes.

Any helpful information is greatly appreciated!

[M-MTax]

Go with bonus if you have a choice......Sec 179 is too involved and bonus is simpler. 

[AmeliesUncle]

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@BearCreek557 wrote:

My husband does have other income from another job.

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Section 179 is limited to the income of ALL "trades or businesses" on the tax return, which DOES include income from a W-2 job.  So it is because of the other job that Section 179 is being allowed.