You can write off a Ford Raptor on your taxes, and if you use it more than 50% for business you can deduct almost the entire purchase price in the year you place it in service. The Raptor’s gross vehicle weight rating is above 6,000 pounds, which exempts it from the annual depreciation caps that limit deductions on lighter cars. With 100% bonus depreciation permanently restored under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a qualifying buyer can deduct the full cost in year one. The tradeoffs: commuting miles don’t count toward business use, you need contemporaneous records, and a tax bill comes back when you sell.
Why the Raptor Qualifies as a Heavy Vehicle
Federal tax law treats vehicles above 6,000 pounds GVWR very differently from lighter passenger cars. The 2026 Ford F-150 Raptor carries a GVWR between 7,350 and 7,500 pounds depending on configuration, well above the threshold. You can confirm the number for your specific truck on the manufacturer’s sticker inside the driver’s side door jamb.
Why does this matter? A passenger car placed in service during 2026 is capped at a first-year depreciation deduction of $20,300 even with bonus depreciation, with the rest spread over several years at progressively lower caps.1Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 2026-15 A $75,000 sedan used entirely for business would take roughly six years to fully depreciate. The Raptor faces no such annual ceiling, which is the whole reason heavy trucks dominate conversations about vehicle write-offs.
Section 179 Alone Is Not Enough
Section 179 lets you expense the cost of qualifying business equipment in the year you place it in service rather than spreading it out.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 179 – Election to Expense Certain Depreciable Business Assets The 2026 overall limit is $2,560,000, phasing out above $4,090,000 in total equipment purchases. Almost no small business hits those numbers. But a separate limit applies specifically to SUVs: $32,000.3Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 2025-32
The tax code’s SUV definition for Section 179 covers four-wheeled vehicles designed to carry passengers, weighing up to 14,000 pounds, that aren’t subject to Section 280F limits. Vehicles with an open cargo bed at least 6 feet in interior length are excluded from the SUV definition.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 179 – Election to Expense Certain Depreciable Business Assets The Raptor’s bed measures about 66 inches, or 5.5 feet. That falls short of 6 feet, which means the Raptor is treated as an SUV under Section 179 and the deduction through that provision alone is capped at $32,000.
A lot of tax articles get this wrong, claiming the Raptor qualifies for the full Section 179 deduction just because it has a truck bed. Bed length matters, not just the existence of a bed. A standard-cab F-150 with a 6.5-foot or 8-foot bed would escape the SUV cap; the Raptor doesn’t ship with those beds. This has become less of a problem than it used to be, because bonus depreciation now covers the shortfall.
How 100% Bonus Depreciation Gets You to a Full Write-Off
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act permanently restored 100% bonus depreciation for qualifying property acquired after January 19, 2025.4Internal Revenue Service. Treasury, IRS Issue Guidance on the Additional First Year Depreciation Deduction Amended as Part of the One Big Beautiful Bill The prior phase-down schedule that had been dropping the rate 20 points a year is gone, and there is no scheduled expiration.5Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2026-11 – Interim Guidance on Additional First Year Depreciation Deduction
Unlike the Section 179 SUV cap, bonus depreciation has no special dollar limit for heavy SUVs. A Raptor costing $85,000 and used 100% for business can be fully deducted through bonus depreciation. The vehicle needs to be new to you (new or used is fine, provided you haven’t previously owned it) and placed in service during the tax year.
A Worked Example
Suppose you buy a 2026 Raptor for $85,000 and use it entirely for business. Two paths get you to a full first-year deduction:
- Take the $32,000 Section 179 deduction, then apply 100% bonus depreciation to the remaining $53,000. First-year deduction: $85,000.
- Skip Section 179 and take 100% bonus depreciation on the whole $85,000. Same result.
There is a practical difference. Section 179 cannot create a net business loss, so you need enough business income to absorb it.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 179 – Election to Expense Certain Depreciable Business Assets Bonus depreciation can generate a net operating loss that carries forward. In a lean year, leaning on bonus depreciation may be the better choice.
If business use is less than 100%, apply your business-use percentage to the purchase price before running the calculation. A truck bought for $85,000 and used 70% for business gives you a depreciable basis of $59,500.
The 50% Business-Use Rule and the Commuting Trap
Both Section 179 and bonus depreciation require business use of more than 50%. Drop below that in any year and you lose access to accelerated depreciation.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 280F – Limitation on Depreciation for Luxury Automobiles
The biggest trap is commuting. Driving from your home to a regular workplace is personal use, always. The IRS is explicit that commuting miles are never deductible, even if you’re taking business calls or riding with coworkers who are talking shop.7Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses Trips from your office to a client site, a second business location, or a job site all count. Same route from home to the office every day does not.
Run your business from home and the rule shifts in your favor. Your home is your principal place of business, so trips from home to client locations and job sites are business miles. If you commute 40 miles round-trip to an outside office every workday, reaching the 50% threshold is harder than it looks. Worth thinking through before you sign the purchase agreement.
Placed in Service and Recordkeeping
The deduction applies for the year the vehicle is placed in service, not necessarily the year you sign the contract. Property is placed in service when it is “ready and available for a specific use.” Buy a Raptor in December but take delivery in January and it counts for the following tax year.8Internal Revenue Service. Publication 946 (2025), How To Depreciate Property That date also starts your business-use tracking, so start the mileage log immediately.
A contemporaneous mileage log is the single most important document for this deduction. Contemporaneous means you record trips as they happen, not by reconstructing them at tax time. Each entry needs the date, destination, business purpose, and odometer readings. Without a log, the IRS can disallow the entire deduction in an audit, and vehicle deductions are among the most challenged items on business returns.
Keep the purchase contract showing price and date, the window sticker confirming GVWR, and any financing documents. Report the deduction on Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization. Part V of that form handles listed property, including business vehicles, and asks for cost basis, business-use percentage, business miles, commuting miles, and personal miles.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4562 – Depreciation and Amortization The numbers on the form need to match your log exactly. Keep depreciation records for the entire period you own the truck plus the limitations period for the year you dispose of it.10Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records
Depreciation Recapture When You Sell
Taking a large upfront deduction is not free money. It reduces the truck’s tax basis, which produces a bigger taxable gain when you sell or trade it in. That is depreciation recapture, and it catches people off guard.
Deduct the full $85,000 and later sell the Raptor for $40,000, and the entire $40,000 is taxable gain because your adjusted basis is zero. Gain attributable to depreciation you previously claimed is taxed as ordinary income, not at the lower capital gains rate.11Internal Revenue Service. Publication 544 (2025), Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets Report it on Form 4797, Part III.12Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4797 The deduction saves taxes at your marginal rate in year one; recapture costs taxes at your marginal rate in the year of sale. The timing benefit is real, but less dramatic than the year-one number suggests.
Recapture also hits if your business use falls to 50% or less during the vehicle’s recovery period. You have to recapture the excess depreciation, meaning the difference between what you deducted and what you would have deducted under the slower alternative depreciation system. That excess gets added back as ordinary income for the year use dropped, and you switch to the alternative depreciation system going forward.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 280F – Limitation on Depreciation for Luxury Automobiles On a truck where you deducted $85,000 upfront, the recapture can be substantial. Plan to hold the business-use percentage for the full recovery period, not only the year of purchase.
If You Lease Instead
Leasing changes the treatment completely. Instead of depreciating the vehicle, you deduct the business portion of each monthly lease payment as a business expense in the year you pay it. The deduction spreads across the lease term rather than concentrating in year one.
Lessees of expensive vehicles also deal with a lease inclusion amount, an annual addition to income that partially offsets the deduction. The IRS publishes the figures annually; for passenger automobiles with a lease term beginning in 2026, Table 3 of Revenue Procedure 2026-15 provides the specific dollar amounts.1Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 2026-15 For a buyer who wants the largest possible first-year deduction, purchasing and claiming bonus depreciation produces the bigger immediate write-off.