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Posts: 200
Location: Milwaukee, WI | Can the expense of owning a boat for use as a guide boat (part time) be tax deductible or depreciated over time? |
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Posts: 200
Location: Milwaukee, WI | Sorry meant guiding. Too much Jamison tonight!! |
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Location: Neapolitan Chain Of Lakes | You can charter your boat (acting as the captain) but you need to show genuine effort at making a profit. You’ll need a U.S. Coast Guard license to take out six paying passengers and you may need to increase your boat insurance if you use it for commercial purposes. You can write off depreciation (for example a straight-line 7 years), maintenance, boat equipment purchases, fuel and mooring costs. Detailed records of every expense as well as the amount of income will be necessary. To avoid extra attention from the IRS, you’ll need to make a profit in at least three out of every five years. You can only deduct the percentage of overall expenses that you use the boat for business. You cannot write off expenses when you’re pleasure boating. You’ll be paying income taxes on the revenue you earn so do the numbers before deciding on this course of action.
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Posts: 1770
| I haven't done it but if a person is just looking for other people to defray the cost of a new boat I would say it's more trouble than it's going to be worth. If you wanna be a guide jump in 100% and try and make a living of it. Remember just cuz a few family and friends got a free fishing trip from you and said "hey that was fun, you should be a guide" that they would pay ya.
Anyway, if you can afford a new boat you shouldn't need a write off. If you currently are a guide by all means take advantage of any tax implications the business offers. |
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Posts: 2355
Location: Chisholm, MN | I did it. I don’t see why you wouldn’t write off any cost of your business. I don’t guide anymore but I did for about 4 years, just on weekends. I’d say it was worth it. |
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