Lease vs buying

Quick answer (I'm not referring to lease-purchases through a truck company btw): With a lease-purchase you write off 100% of the payment per mo/yr. Usually in the contract there is a small buy-out payment option at end of term (like for $1.00) so you will own it at term's end.

With an outright purchase, you must depreciate the value over so many years, that is what you may write off yearly, it varies. You also write off the interest part of the payment, much like with a year-end home purchase write-off of the interest paid to bank. Also you may have to pay more as a down payment, depends on your experience, age, and credit rating. The main advantage to this (for tax reasons) is if you know you will owe a lot more income tax in a given year, then the depreciated value may be more advantageous to you, depending to your situation.

Now as to truck company lease-purchases: They usually advertise no credit checks, zero to low down-payments, etc. So guys with poor to bad credit can get into their own truck that way, but they're then somewhat at the mercy of the truck company to run them enough to remain profitable. There are many horror stories about that, just read them or listen to drivers at truckstops.

Anyway, I set my current truck up as a lease-purchase, I write off 100% of payments, and it was at 0% down payment. However the payments are larger, but cash flow is king.

 

Also, I have my current trailer set up the same way. I'm an independent carrier.

 

This would involve a straight lease, up to three years. Payments are tax deductible, and the warranty covers everything but "consumables" for 350,000 miles- at least in the case of Freightliner this is a superb set-up for maintenance. Not so much with the Paccar units. A lot of your potential is dependent on the FM you're working with, and how well you manage your business.