Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

It's been a couple years since I've dealt with depreciation expenses for taxes but I was under the assumption that the truck, for tax purposes, would need to be depreciated over the expected life - i.e. if you plan on keeping it 5 years, you have to depreciate it over 5 years of use. You might only have a two year loan, but the asset is depreciated over its life and not the loan period. The loan and the asset are two separate entries in the accounting books. I'm not sure but you might get to expense the interest on the loan in addition to taking the depreciation value each year you own the asset.

If you depreciate the asset over 2 years but keep it for five, you have to go back and re-adjust your depreciation each year beyond what you originally depreciated. If you can accelerate the depreciation, which would make a lot of sense on a truck, you would then end up depreciating most of the truck in the first two or three years and the last two years you still depreciate but it is much less.

The key is to ensure that at the end of 5 years, the truck still has "some" value. Unless you are scrapping it outright, you'll probably sell it on down the road. If you fully depreciate the value of the truck so that at the end of year 5 it is worth $0.00 and then turn around and sell it, you have to treat the residual as either income or you have to then re-value the asset and turn around and correct your depreciation schedule (I can't remember which exactly).

This is the exact reason why leases are so popular in businesses. Depending on the type of lease, you just expense the thing all the way across the board instead of having to mess with depreciation schedules on the books. At the end of the lease, you just get rid of the thing and get something new and you don't have to futz with the books. On the flip side of the coin, the way truck prices are nowadays, you either lease a new truck or buy a used truck but never buy a new truck.

I've probably bungled something here so if you've already talked to a cpa or tax guy, just tell me to pee up a rope. You might want to ping that RoadMedic guy here on the forums, he seems pretty knowledgeable about the tax/accounting angle. I just remember screwing up this very topic in a managerial accounting test a few years ago with a similar line of thinking on depreciation.

 

There's a program called PDA net that will let you tether various smart phones for a one time fee. I've been using it for a year, and it beats paying $60 a month for an aircard.

The catch is you have to have a phone their program supports, along with a data plan. Since most smartphones have them, that's not a big problem, unless you go over. I have an android phone and it works great for it.

 

Man, the phones these days are incredible. If you have a fairly decent phone you can literally anything! It makes trucking so much easier (and less lonely) than the old "pay phone" days. It also makes sitting at shippers/receivers less boring. It makes getting around a lot more easier too. Plus the camera's in them are better now and you can instantly snap a photo. Whether be scenic, odd, or an accident you have a camera readily available. I got the Droid and the thing is amazing! I love the Iheart radio and Pandora too! Oh yeah, also the games. I can't believe in just a few short years we've gone from Atari "Asteroids" to just about any game you want to play right in the palm of your hands! It's sick, just sick I tell you!

 

I have a jailbroken Iphone and use PDANET myself, works great, I can set up a wi-fi hotspot. I don't stream movies or anything like that so really I don't use more data than I would just using it on the phone eventhough I am tethering to my laptop with it.

 

Some good android apps to have...Lookout(anti-virus), Advanced task killer(Kills tasks to save battery), TIKL(turns your phone into a walkie talkie), TV Guide, and of course ESPN radio.

 

Yeah, advanced task killer is a must! I will have to try TIKL that sounds interesting. Check out Angry Birds. This is so friggin addicting! Another good one is the flashlight app. Also PaperToss. You are going to be mad at me once you start Angry Birds. You won't want to put the phone down!

 

For trucks they have a method of depreciating it out at a faster rate. Labeled as accelerated depreciation.
If I sell the truck at the end I will have to eat some of the depreciation. But I would probably trade it and not sell it, so I would not have to worry about the hit.

 

Well since were talking about electronics! not trying too throw off the thread here, u guys should really take a look into this pc game called rig n roll it was only 10 bucks at gamestop i just got a new laptop 2 days ago and it works very good, i got a good deal on it $485 at bestbuy too but anyways....check some pictures its deffently game is deffently a time killer! heres the website too the game www.rignroll.com

Eric

 

Oh man, I am really starting to hate you guys. Tethering, apps, PDA's.... blah blah. Wouldn't be so bad if I actually understood how to do some of those things myself. lol

 

its not as hard as it sounds... It seems the droid phones basically do it all for you... just download stuff from android marketplace and you are set.