Golf Cart Purchase Cost Deduction?

[mb92079]

Hello Everyone!

Wife is real estate agent. She does a lot of local community and neighborhood events, i.e. Collecting food for needy, Halloween parade, Santa clause, Easter Bunny etc. She purchased a used golf cart that she now uses in these events with her company info displayed on it. Can we deduct the cost to purchase on 2023 taxes? TIA

[AnnetteB6]

It depends on how far you want to push the envelope with your tax return.

Some tax preparers would tell you that you can deduct the golf cart because it is advertising your wife's business.  

If I were preparing your return, I would be more conservative.  First, you would need to know what percentage of use of the golf cart is business and what percentage of use is personal.  If it is not a minimum of 50% business use, then do not claim it.  Also, since it is something that has a useful life longer than a year, it would need to be depreciated as an Asset for business purposes.  The percentage of business use would be accounted for when entering the information about the Asset.

Even with the conservative approach, this is not a typical ordinary and necessary business expense for a real estate agent and it may be disallowed if you were to be audited.