topic California Section 179 in State tax filing

California Section 179

Lgranlund — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 07:07:28 GMT

Why does California Section 179 Deduction Summary say that total section 179 deduction cannot be more than zero? I have three section 179 assets totaling $19,521. The program stops here and I can go no further.????

Re: California Section 179

KarenL4 — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 21:51:38 GMT

Hi, Lgranlund:

That sounds super frustrating! Unfortunately, this is not the kind of thing we can help you with in this forum. I suggest you reach out to TurboTax product support at 1-800-4INTUIT (1-800-446-8848). A tax expert can then help you understand what is going on and how to address it. They have superpowers like screen sharing that just aren't available to us when working in the community.

Hope this helps!

*Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post
**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"

Best,

Karen

Re: California Section 179

LarryL — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 21:28:33 GMT

I'm having the same problem and wonder if you (or anyone else) has found an answer.

Re: California Section 179

KeshaH — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:24:11 GMT

If you'd like, we can look at your return and see exactly what you see to help come to a resolution. The return will be scrubbed and won't include any of your personal details.

If you're using TurboTax Online:

Once you're logged in to your account,

- on the left hand panel, click on Tax Tools and then choose Tools

- on the pop up window, select Share my file with Agent

- you'll see a message saying you'll give us a copy of your tax return. Your personal information will be changed so we can't see any private information.

- click okay and you'll get another message with a token

Please reply to this message with your token so that we can further assist you.

@LarryL

Re: California Section 179

LarryL — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 00:10:09 GMT

Hi Kesha,

Thanks for the offer but I just figured out the issue. The $25,000 Sec. 179 CA limit is entirely eliminated when asset purchases exceed $225,000 in a given year, which was the case for us. It would have saved me a lot of time if Turbotax had provided this explanation, but hopefully this information will help anyone else who was confused by this and looks here for an answer.

Re: California Section 179

CaliCollie — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 20:04:13 GMT

Well. My total asset purchases are $300. I still get the message. 2 Live "tax" people on Live Support indicted they were an EA or CPA (well one said so and then said she needed to transfer me to someone who was "certified" and that next person would not answer the question as to what their credentials were). A third attempt resulted in a promise for someone to call me (never did). I just tried again and Live Support called me, I picked up the phone and before any words were spoken was disconnected.

Re: California Section 179

MonikaK1 — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 19:31:09 GMT

Enter the asset in the Federal section. Consider whether it should be a 179 deduction or use the de minimis safe harbor election, or whether the item is just a consumable and can be listed as an expense.

To qualify for a Section 179 deduction, the asset must be:

Tangible (you're able to touch it, which excludes intangible assets like patents or copyrights)
Purchased (not leased) for business use
Used more than 50% in your business
Placed in service (purchased, acquired, or converted to business use) during the current tax year
Acquired from a nonrelated party

The Section 179 deduction can't be claimed for business assets that were acquired in a tax-free exchange or from a person or entity with whom you share a close relationship as specified by the IRS.

See this help article for more information.

The IRS does also allow the expensing of certain items up to $2,500 without having to depreciate them. TurboTax asks questions in the rental interview to help you identify which items to treat as assets subject to depreciation versus current-year expenses.

Expenses are used to deduct the entire cost of services, utilities, fees, and consumable items (like cleaning supplies, light bulbs, smoke alarms, and batteries).

See this TurboTax help article and this one for more information.

This election for items $2,500 or less is called the De Minimis Safe Harbor Election. This election is an option you can take each year that lets you write off/deduct items $2,500 or less as expenses instead of assets. Expenses typically reduce your income by a larger amount than depreciating an asset over multiple years does. This means you could get a bigger refund.

If you decide to take this option, a form called De Minimis Safe Harbor Election will show up in your tax return. This election will apply to all your businesses, rental properties or farms.

Here are the rules you need to meet to take this election:

You don't have an applicable financial statement (most people don't).
You have a consistent process for how you record expenses and assets.
You record these items as expenses on your books/records.
The cost of each item as shown on your receipt is $2,500 or less.
Rental Property select Edit > Other expenses > Other Miscellaneous Expenses
Enter Description (Safe Harbor ...) and amount (not entered as assets under this election)

Note: If you take the De Minimis Safe Harbor election, under the $2,500 threshold, you are not required to used section 179. You can list these expenses under Miscellaneous. If the amount was over 2,500, then you would enter these as assets and then would be able to choose the 179 option.

@CaliCollie

Re: California Section 179

CaliCollie — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:40:33 GMT

Thank you for your reply. However, the issue appears to have been a software bug. The error and inability to file appeared after a Turbotax software update and disappeared two updates later! Prior to that last update, a Turbotax live CPA found no issues with my entries, entered a bug report, and allegedly sent a notification to the ?Turbotax app to run a diagnostic. However, no notifications were found when I clicked on the "bell" icon in Turbotax! I had been using Turbotax without issue for weeks, so I suspect that the update was just wonky. Took the Turbo out of the Turbotax for sure! Also a bit frightening, as in the end, it seems that Turbotax mistook an entry of $300 for $300,000!