Modifications Tax Deductible?

[Power]

Do we have some members with some tax expertise or past experience?

I use my car for work - sales - so a percentage of all expenses, lease repayments etc are tax deductible.

Most of this amount is by way of car allowance.

Can anyone imagine a $6000 expense for an APS Phase II + valve springs + engineers certificate as being allowed as an expense in the same way?

Then again I'm sure I could get invoices for "Replacement Exhaust" + "Replacement Cold Air Intake" and so on.....no lie there.

[Eugene]

I will let you know in a month or so.

I have all of my invoices as services etc, not parts.

I do alot of K's my car is 9 months alod and has 45k on it, so we shall see how we go, I also have a perasonal car too that allows me to use the ute 100% for work.

Maybe if you had an invoice for replace damaged parts not covered by isurance etc???

[Power]

Yeah, utes are BEST for the tax issue. No friggin around with % of personal use you lucky bas*ard.

I'm actually considering getting it done (or at least paying in full) in the next 9 days if it's deductible to take advantage of an immediate refund of course.

I can't find any info to say it's not deductible. A percentage will always be for personal use in a sedan. Even a tyre pressure guage or weekly car washes are deductible for those not in the game.

It does occur to me that maybe the tax dept have a ruling for this type of thing where it falls into 100% personal use even on a car used to obtain income - having "tyre frying" power doesn't provide for income. I guess a huge sound system or custom interior or flames and so on would be viewed the same way.

Then again, who is to say I'm not a nutter who just replaces bits of his car all the time.

Re your point: I can't see that as a car purchased in April and comprehensively insured that such amounts wouldn't be covered by warranty or insurance.

Edited 20/06/05 11:20 PM by Power

[Turbofalke]

I may be wrong, but I believe that with any personal asset claimable as a business expense or % of it, you can claim depreciation on the business usage. e.g. if you bought sat nav for your vehicle, which you use for work, then that can be depreciated and claimed.

Similar to maintenance on your T, just done call it a performance upgrade!

[jordak]

No problems claim away a car related expense is a car related expense.

A new cleaning mit keeps the car presentable for carting your clients around and an edit makes the car run more efficiently with better fuel consumption..........oh and also helps with client relations as well

[2fardown]

You can't claim performance enhancements. Well you could but that would be fraud....

[ZAP]

Being married to a CPA accountant has its advantages .

I can tell you that there is a very grey area when it comes to performance mods to the car and claiming them on your tax.

You also cannot claim any mods that will take the value of the car over $57k. This means that if you pay $55k for your car you could claim up to $2k in the first 12 months as a tax deduction, but over that amount you can only depreciate it over the life of the car.

I fell into this trap, it is better to buy a $20k car and spend $30k in mods as you could technicially claim the whole $30k. You also need to remember that the FBT will be higher as modding adds to the overall value of the car.

The government has made things MUCH harder to rort when it comes to cars .

I made the mistake of buying a $60k car and then wanted to spend $10k on mods with the belief of being able to deduct them......wrong

So I now have a $60k car with only depreciable mods, that will make my FBT bill much higher.

IT SUCKS

[Guest mercurysteve]

I only have serviceable, repairable items. Certainly not mods....

[BAturb]

could the edit be claimed as an overboost fix as ford have had so much trouble over this issue?

[Power]

Appreciate the advice & comments. Something to work with.