Lawyers, physicians, real-estate agents and other self-employed individuals soon may write off their $75,000 sports-utility vehicles as “small-business expenses.”
Never mind that 35 luxury SUV models—now classified as “trucks” because they weigh more than 6,000 pounds (three tons)--may never haul anything heavier than legal briefs, medical bags or for-sale signs.
Under Dubya’s economic-stimulus proposal this month, the entire “truck” write-off will rise from $25,000 to $75,000 in the first year.
Dubya’s plan means the gas-guzzling $100,000 Hummer H1 SUV will end up costing “small-business owners” about as much as a mid-sized sedan.
Taxes lost last year with just the $25,000 deduction amounted to an estimated $800 million. The proposed $75,000 write-off will cost the federal treasury billions of dollars more.
It also will cost the rest of us in more traffic fatalities, injuries and property damages resulting in higher insurance premiums, plus increased fuel depletion and air pollution. (16 FEBRUARY 2003)
