Business & farm

Items under $2,500 can be written off based on the De Minimis Safe Harbor.

There are six categories of depreciable property that qualify for the Section 179 deduction: 

1. Tangible personal property: machinery and equipment; property contained in or attached to a building such as refrigerators, grocery store counters, office equipment, printing presses, testing equipment and signs; gasoline storage tanks and pumps at retail service stations; livestock including horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, mink, etc.; portable air conditioners or heaters (placed in service after 2015); certain property used predominantly to furnish lodging
2. Other tangible property: property that is (a) an integral part of manufacturing, production or extraction or of furnishing transportation, communications, electricity, gas, water or sewage disposal services (excludes buildings); (b) research facilities used in connection with activities in (a); or (c) a facility used in connection with any of the activities in (a) for the bulk storage of fungible commoditie
3. Single-purpose agricultural (livestock) or horticultural structure
4. Storage facilities used in connection with distributing petroleum or any primary product of petroleu
5. Off-the-shelf computer software such as Quickbooks or Microsoft Offic
6. Qualified Section 179 real property including improvements placed in service after non-residential real property was placed in service, such as heating, ventilation and air-conditioning; fire protection and alarm systems; security systems; roofs

Sorry, these are disqualified

As with other types of tax deductions and expenses, not everything counts. Here are the exceptions:

• Ineligible property
  • Building
  • Land
  • Trailers (non-mobile)
  • Fences
  • Docks
  • Swimming pools
  • Landscaping
  • Billboards (unless movable)

See the Original Article