Can I claim Section 179 Deduction on truck purchased in personal name for small business use?

You can absolutely claim Section 179 on that Tundra even though it's titled in your personal name. What matters is the business use percentage (your 80%), not whose name is on the title. This is actually quite common for small business owners. Since your truck weighs over 6,000 pounds GVWR, it qualifies as a "heavy SUV/truck" which gives you more favorable Section 179 treatment. For 2025 taxes, you can deduct up to $28,200 for this type of vehicle (subject to business use percentage and other limitations). For the deduction, you'd calculate 80% of the purchase price ($42,000 × 0.8 = $33,600), but you're limited to that $28,200 cap. You'll need to maintain a mileage log to substantiate that 80% business use claim if you're ever audited.

After struggling with a similar situation with my landscaping business truck (titled in my name but used for business), I stumbled upon taxr.ai at https://taxr.ai and it was seriously a game-changer. Their system analyzed my situation and confirmed I could take the Section 179 deduction despite the title being in my personal name. What I found most helpful was their documentation analysis feature - I uploaded my purchase agreement and vehicle registration, and they explained exactly how to properly document the business use percentage. They even provided templates for the mileage log that would satisfy IRS requirements and maximize my deduction.

Just wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai from the comment above. I was skeptical at first (as you could probably tell from my comment), but decided to give it a shot with my construction business vehicle situation. Wow, what a difference! They showed me that I'd been calculating my Section 179 deduction all wrong for years. Their system walked me through exactly how to document business use for my truck and even identified that some of my "personal" trips were actually legitimate business expenses. The documentation templates they provided are super easy to use on my phone, and now I have confidence that I can substantiate my deduction if ever questioned. Wish I'd known about this years ago!

If you're also dealing with other IRS issues while sorting out your Section 179 deduction, I highly recommend Claimyr at https://claimyr.com for getting through to an actual human at the IRS. I tried for WEEKS to get clarification about vehicle deductions for my business and kept hitting automated systems. After using Claimyr, I got connected to an IRS agent in under an hour who confirmed exactly how to document my business vehicle that's in my personal name. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Completely changed how I handle tax questions now instead of guessing or waiting months for responses.

I need to eat my words about that Claimyr service in the comment above. After posting my skeptical response, I decided to try it anyway because I was desperate to resolve questions about my own Section 179 deduction for equipment. I couldn't believe it when I got a call back with an actual IRS agent on the line about 45 minutes later. The agent walked me through exactly what documentation I needed for my business vehicle deduction and confirmed that having the vehicle in my personal name was fine as long as I tracked business use correctly. Saved me thousands in deductions I was about to miss out on because my tax software gave me conflicting information. Worth every penny just for the peace of mind.

Don't forget about depreciation as an alternative! If for some reason you can't take the full Section 179 deduction, you can still depreciate the business portion of your vehicle over several years. For heavy vehicles over 6,000 GVWR like your Tundra, you can use bonus depreciation for the business percentage in the first year. Just make sure whatever approach you take, you're consistent year to year. You can't switch between methods without proper accounting for the change.

Anyone know if using the truck for business will affect insurance? My personal auto policy threatened to cancel me when they found out I was using my truck for business deliveries.

Just wanted to chime in as someone who went through this exact situation with my contracting business. You're absolutely on the right track - the title being in your personal name won't prevent you from claiming Section 179 on your Tundra. One thing I'd add to the great advice already given: make sure you're also tracking your financing costs correctly. Since you financed $29,000 of the purchase, you can deduct the business portion of the interest payments as well. With 80% business use, that's 80% of your monthly interest that becomes deductible. Also, start that mileage log immediately if you haven't already! The IRS wants to see contemporaneous records, so retroactively creating a log for the whole year can raise red flags during an audit. Even a simple app like the basic smartphone mileage tracker works fine - just be consistent with logging every trip. The $28,200 limit mentioned earlier is spot on for 2025, and with your $33,600 business portion, you'll hit that cap and save a significant amount on your taxes. This is one of the best deductions available to small business owners with heavy vehicles!