I have a software business and I work a good 8+ hours a day from my RV. In a home based business you can write off the square footage of your house that's the office, obviously in the RV that's negligible. For those that are using your RV for your business what are your write-offs? Anyone bought an RV under their business? Is that smart or not? Any tips on doing so? As I will also use the RV for business travel there's that aspect. My accountant hasn't been much help in this area mainly because this has been an evolving situation but I welcome tips on those that have tied their coach to their business and in what ways. My business is an S Corp.

I can't help with tax advantages but depending on the size of your RV there may be problems with CDL requirements and commercial insurance.  

Buying it in the business name requires daily mileage logs splitting out any personal use. The write off would be apportioned same as the usage. 

Get a GOOD accountant 1st.

Do you have a personal residence in addition to the motorhome? The tax law regarding a Office in your home is that the Office area must be used exclusively for an office and no other purpose. You also can not have an office located elsewhere besides the one in your home. If you are fulltime in your motorhome these same rules would apply. It would be difficult to designate an area in a motorhome as exclusive use for an office. 

Now if you are traveling for your business, going to your clients locations, away from your home office, your travel expenses for fuel and camp ground fees MAY be deductible. Food on the road would only be partially deductible. You really need to consult with a CPA, or Tax Lawyer. Do not rely on any thing the IRS tells you. They are often wrong citing their own rules and are not held to false information given if you are audited. 

  On 11/15/2019 at 1:38 AM, Twotoes said:

Do you have a personal residence in addition to the motorhome?

Yes I do. It sounds really complicated. Probably best to keep the RV on the personal side. Now sure how the whole Montana LLC game plays in but that's an option too. 

You don’t need a business to form a Montana LLC but if you do have a business you can form an LLC in any State for your business. Your bio says you are from VA so you could form an LLC in VA and have your LLC purchase the RV as a business expense and put it in your name or on your tax return. But I would still caution you to check sultan with a professional. A Tax Lawyer would be able to give you advise on taxes and LLCs 

HERO Maker is offline at the moment, but if he saw this post I'm sure he would mention COMMERCIAL RV INSURANCE is astronomical, and premiums increase exponentially each year.  Carriers frequently decide after covering the big RVs for a year that they are going to drop them altogether, so it's always a shifting search.

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I don't have the specifics on the numbers at the moment, but if our most recent policy premium is as I remember, it would underwrite our space rent at our current park for 13 MONTHS, not including our monthly electric bill.

Edited November 15 by rocksbride

additional info

Yeah, I remember a guy buying a King Aire when I was at Newmar and he was dealing with insurance issues. Sounds like a tremendous hassle. This idea is fading fast

  On 11/15/2019 at 1:39 AM, NealC said:

Probably best to keep the RV on the personal side. Now sure how the whole Montana LLC game plays in but that's an option too. 

If you plan to keep the RV in Virginia when not traveling you will be taking a big risk if you choose to register it in MT. If the local tax authority should notice they could very well come after the taxes you avoided in doing that as well as possible fines and penalties. 

When we asked about writing off boat usage with the business (we would take customers out on multi-day trips), our accountant basically said he could guarantee that our cost to defend the inevitable audit would exceed the savings.  He said we could log specific costs like fuel used for a clear business trip, and food, but not the living and working space itself.

In your case it might be more clear if you're full time and work on board.  But you really do need to find someone who knows this answer specifically.  Perhaps someone from the Xscapers?  There are a lot of working liveaboards there.

Thanks. I think this thought it long gone. It just doesn't sound worth it. But thank you all.