Income Tax And The Depreciation Of Motor-Vehicles

If you are carrying on a business or profession one of the major instruments of  reducing taxes is to claim depreciation on the purchase of your vehicle.

Any expenditure incurred for the purpose of the business is allowed as a deduction from your business profits; as such, expenditure incurred on a vehicle used in the business viz fuel expenses, repairs & maintenance expenditure, vehicle insurance are allowed as deductions. Besides, in computing income from business one of the most important items of allowances is the allowance for depreciation, provided by Section 32 of the Income Tax Act.

Depreciation is a non-cash expense which results from the reduction/diminution in the value of certain capital assets including vehicles etc. This deduction towards depreciation is very essential to arrive at the Income from Business/profession of the taxpayer and also to amortize the capital cost of the amount invested in business assets like factory building, machinery, plant, furniture, vehicles etc. The purpose of allowing depreciation is to provide in the course of time for replacement of the asset which is allowed to be depreciated over a period of time. Read more of this post