America’s Most Desirable Car is Subsidized by the IRS
When you think G-Wagon, think working man’s wheels
Tiktok is full of self-appointed financial gurus with the “hacks” to managing wealth you certainly do not have. If the algorithm is showing you financial advice, you’re probably broke. For the most part the stuff they recommend — flipping real estate, playing the Airbnb game, maximizing a Roth IRA — is no huge secret. But if there’s one tip the money guys on social media really want us to know, it's that you can write off a brand new Mercedes G-Wagon on your taxes.
Section 179 of the IRS tax code lists the terms for the maximum deductions a small business can take on equipment, but cars weighing more than 6,000 pounds have additional tax incentives because that weight class includes machines that are more likely to be used specifically for business purposes like vans and trucks. Incidentally, however, the G-Wagon — a tank originally commissioned by the Shah of Iran that costs around $130,000 — and a cluster of other SUVs that aren’t cool enough to mention on TikTok also fall under this umbrella.
Basically, in addition to writing off a $25,900 chunk of a G-Wagon’s sticker price (which happens to be more than I made last year), you can also include years of future depreciation, allowing a profitable business to write off the full price of a car on a single year’s taxes.
I’m not sure when a G-Wagon qualifies as a necessary business expense (unless your business is clout or a dictatorship), but it is currently the fastest selling car in America, with waitlists and increased pricing due to demand.
Perhaps the G-Class is so popular because people are getting it at a discount. I know that’s not completely true because, just look at the thing, it’s a total douche magnet. Not that the motives of every car’s design have to be examined, but it’s a little on the nose for the U.S. government to hand out military-inspired cars “for business purposes.”
I'm not a hater, but I would like some loopholes of my own since I don’t actually want a car, not even a 6,000 lb one, to grab ingredients for recipe-testing at the Gowanus Whole Foods. As a self-employed business owner myself, I should get some perks too, like writing off a Hästens mattress as office furniture, or hiring an astrologer as a professional consultant and then go viral telling you all about the grift.
Yes a flashy car is a great way to project an identity but is that something that should be subsidized? Let me get back to you when I have an LLC.
