Section 179 & 280F: GVWR Caps, SUV Sub-Cap, and Bonus Depreciation

The 6,000-pound vehicle tax deduction rule is the pivot point of business auto write-offs: a vehicle rated at or under 6,000 pounds is treated as a passenger automobile and capped at $20,300 in first-year depreciation for 2026, while a vehicle rated above 6,000 pounds escapes those caps and can qualify for immediate expensing under Section 179, up to $2,560,000 in the year it’s placed in service. A middle tier of heavy SUVs between 6,000 and 14,000 pounds gets a partial break, with immediate Section 179 expensing capped at $32,000. Which category your vehicle lands in depends on a single number printed on the door label, and on which type of weight the tax code uses for your vehicle class.¹²

Which Weight the Tax Code Uses

Section 280F draws its line at 6,000 pounds, but the measure isn’t the same for every vehicle. For cars and crossover SUVs, the statute uses unloaded gross vehicle weight, meaning the vehicle with standard equipment and a full tank of fuel but no passengers or cargo. For trucks and vans, the statute uses gross vehicle weight rating, the maximum loaded weight the manufacturer certifies the vehicle to carry.¹

The difference is not academic. A large SUV can show a GVWR of 6,500 pounds on its door sticker while its unloaded weight sits below 6,000 pounds. If the IRS classifies that vehicle as a passenger automobile, it stays inside the 280F caps despite the higher loaded number. Trucks and vans face the more favorable test: if the manufacturer’s GVWR is above 6,000 pounds, the vehicle clears the threshold.

Finding the Number That Matters

Every vehicle sold in the United States carries a permanent label on the driver’s side doorjamb or door edge listing the GVWR. That figure is the loaded maximum, and it’s the one that applies to trucks and vans under Section 280F and to the SUV classification under Section 179. Dealer window stickers and the manufacturer’s technical specifications carry the same number.

If you drive a car or crossover, you also need the unloaded weight, which appears in the owner’s manual or the manufacturer’s published specifications. Confirm the correct figure before filing. Using the wrong weight measure for your vehicle class means claiming a deduction you may not qualify for.

At or Under 6,000 Pounds: The Section 280F Caps

When a vehicle sits at or under the threshold, the IRS treats it as a passenger automobile and limits how much you can deduct each year, regardless of what you paid. For 2026, the caps apply identically to cars, trucks, and vans that fall into the passenger-automobile category.²

With 100% bonus depreciation available, the maximum first-year deduction is $20,300. If you elect out of bonus depreciation or don’t qualify, the first-year cap drops to $12,300. The later-year limits are the same either way:²

Second year: $19,800
Third year: $11,900
Each year after that: $7,160

The practical effect is slow. A business owner who buys a $55,000 sedan can’t deduct more than $20,300 in year one and spreads the balance across roughly six or seven years at the amounts above.

Over 6,000 Pounds: Section 179 Expensing

Once a vehicle clears the 6,000-pound line, the Section 280F caps no longer apply. The vehicle becomes eligible for Section 179 expensing, which lets a business deduct the full purchase price in the year the vehicle is placed in service instead of spreading it across multiple years.³

For tax years beginning in 2026, the overall Section 179 deduction limit is $2,560,000. That ceiling covers all Section 179 property a business places in service during the year, not just vehicles. The deduction phases out dollar-for-dollar once total qualifying equipment purchases exceed $4,090,000 in the same tax year. Most small and mid-size businesses won’t approach that limit, but a company running a fleet expansion should track the total.

The contrast with lighter vehicles is stark. A contractor who buys a $78,000 heavy-duty pickup with a GVWR above 6,000 pounds can potentially deduct the entire $78,000 in year one, subject to the business-use rules below. That same $78,000 spent on a lighter sedan is capped at $20,300.

The SUV Sub-Cap Between 6,000 and 14,000 Pounds

Congress carved out a separate rule for heavy SUVs that clear 6,000 pounds but remain designed primarily to carry passengers. Under Section 179(b)(5), immediate expensing for these vehicles is capped at $32,000 for 2026, well below the full Section 179 limit.³

The statute defines a sport utility vehicle here as any four-wheeled vehicle designed to carry passengers on public roads, not subject to Section 280F (meaning it exceeds 6,000 pounds), and rated at no more than 14,000 pounds GVWR. The $32,000 cap is inflation-adjusted annually from a $25,000 base amount in the statute. Any cost above the cap can still be recovered through regular depreciation or bonus depreciation over the vehicle’s recovery period, so $32,000 isn’t the lifetime deduction. It’s the maximum you can expense immediately under Section 179.

Vehicles over 14,000 pounds fall outside the SUV definition entirely, so they qualify for the full Section 179 limit without the sub-cap.

Heavy Vehicles That Bypass the SUV Cap

The statute excludes three categories of vehicles from the SUV definition, meaning they qualify for full Section 179 expensing even in the 6,000-to-14,000-pound range:³

Pickup trucks with a full-size bed at least six feet in interior length, open or enclosed by a cap, and not readily accessible from the passenger compartment.
Vehicles with seating for more than nine passengers behind the driver, which covers shuttle buses and large passenger vans.
Fully enclosed cargo vehicles where the driver compartment and cargo area form an integral enclosure, with no seating behind the driver and no body section extending more than 30 inches ahead of the windshield. Ambulances, delivery vans, and work trucks with an attached utility body typically qualify.

Vehicles matching these descriptions are plainly commercial and hard to repurpose as family transportation, which is why the SUV cap doesn’t reach them.

Bonus Depreciation Is Back at 100%

Under the original Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, bonus depreciation was phasing down each year. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, signed on July 4, 2025, restored 100% bonus depreciation for qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025.⁴

For business vehicles placed in service in 2026, this restoration does two things. Lighter vehicles under the 280F caps get the higher first-year limit of $20,300 instead of the $12,300 base. Heavy vehicles that exceed the Section 179 limit, or whose owners prefer not to use Section 179, can still deduct 100% of the remaining cost through bonus depreciation. In practice, Section 179 and bonus depreciation overlap for heavy vehicles, and the combination lets most businesses write off the entire purchase price in year one.

You can elect out of bonus depreciation if it produces a tax result you don’t want, such as a net operating loss in a year when you’d rather preserve deductions for later. The election applies to an entire class of property, not on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis.²

Business Use Must Be More Than 50%

None of these deductions are available unless the vehicle is used more than 50% for business during the tax year. The threshold is absolute. Fifty percent on the dot does not qualify; you need 51% or higher to claim Section 179 or bonus depreciation.⁵

Even when you clear the bar, the deduction is proportional. A vehicle used 75% for business produces a deduction equal to 75% of the eligible amount. A $70,000 truck used 75% for work yields a $52,500 Section 179 deduction, not $70,000. The 25% attributable to personal use is never deductible.

Commuting Is Personal Use

The daily drive between home and your regular workplace is commuting, and commuting counts as personal use. It doesn’t become business mileage because you make phone calls on the way, haul tools in the bed, or display advertising on the vehicle.⁵

Miles that do count include driving between two work locations during the day, visiting clients or job sites, and traveling from home to a temporary work location when you have a regular office elsewhere. If your home office qualifies as your principal place of business, trips from home to other work locations in the same trade or business also count as business miles.⁵

This is where most business-use claims fall apart in an audit. Counting commutes as business miles inflates the use percentage, inflates the deduction, and creates a recapture problem if the IRS catches it years later.

Recapture If Business Use Drops or You Sell

Claiming a large first-year deduction creates a follow-through obligation. You need to keep business use above 50% throughout the vehicle’s recovery period, typically five years. If business use falls to 50% or below in any year during that period, you must recapture part of the deduction you already claimed.⁶

The recapture amount is the difference between the Section 179 deduction originally claimed and the straight-line depreciation you would have been entitled to from the year the vehicle was placed in service through the year business use dropped. That difference gets added back to your income as ordinary income, reported on Form 4797, and your basis in the vehicle increases by the same amount.⁷

Selling the vehicle triggers a separate recapture calculation under Section 1245. If you sell for more than the adjusted basis, which is often very low after a full Section 179 deduction, the gain is treated as ordinary income to the extent of depreciation previously allowed or allowable. Only gain above the total depreciation claimed is treated as capital gain.⁸

A business that fully expenses a $75,000 truck in year one and sells it three years later for $40,000 reports the entire $40,000 as ordinary income. The tax savings from the initial deduction are real, but the resale hit offsets part of them. Factor that into the true after-tax cost before you buy.

A Note on Leased Vehicles

Leasing doesn’t let you avoid the Section 280F limits. When you lease a passenger automobile for 30 days or more and its fair market value exceeds an IRS-set threshold, you must add an annual “inclusion amount” to your income during the lease, designed to bring your net deduction roughly in line with what you’d get by purchasing and depreciating the vehicle under the 280F caps. Heavy vehicles leased for business use generally aren’t subject to inclusion amounts because they fall outside the passenger-automobile definition.¹

Records You Need to Keep

The IRS expects contemporaneous records, meaning documentation created at or near the time of each trip rather than reconstructed at year end. You need to substantiate four elements for each business use: the amount spent, the date, the destination, and the business purpose.⁹

A mileage log is the standard way to establish business use percentage. Each entry should record the date, starting point, destination, business purpose, and miles driven, plus a running total of all miles for the year so the IRS can compute the business-to-personal ratio. GPS-based mileage apps satisfy the requirement as long as they capture the required data at or near the time of travel and you review the entries for accuracy.

Beyond the mileage log, hold onto the purchase agreement or lease contract showing total cost, the VIN, and the placed-in-service date. Confirm the GVWR from the manufacturer’s door label or specifications, because that number decides whether you’re above or below the 6,000-pound line. All of it feeds into Form 4562, which is the form you file to claim depreciation, Section 179 expensing, and bonus depreciation on business assets.¹⁰

If you claim a deduction without adequate records and the return is audited, the deduction can be disallowed and you may owe back taxes plus interest. This is one area where the time it takes to keep a clean log is worth far more than any shortcut.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S.C. 280F – Limitation on Depreciation for Luxury Automobiles; Limitation Where Certain Property Used for Personal Purposes
2
Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 2026-15
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S.C. 179 – Election to Expense Certain Depreciable Business Assets
4
Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2026-11 – Interim Guidance on Additional First Year Depreciation Deduction Under Section 168(k)
5
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 – Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
6
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 946 – How To Depreciate Property
7
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4797 (2025)
8
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 544 – Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets
9
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.274-5A – Substantiation Requirements
10
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4562 (2025)