Tax deductions for your business SUV

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(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Dear FSB: I have a rental property in Tahoe set up as a sole proprietorship. I want to purchase an SUV - which would weigh over 6,000 lbs - for both personal and business use. Can I take the accelerated depreciation?

- Mary, Tiburon, Calif.

Dear Mary: When you've got a valuable asset whose worth is going to decline within a few years, choosing accelerated depreciation is often a smart choice: It enables you to count the investment as a larger business expense earlier on.

But Diane Goodman, an Albuquerque based CPA, warns: "You can't even consider taking it unless more than 50% of your usage is for the rental property."

If you do use the truck for mainly business, you'll have to carefully document your mileage - both your personal and business use. Once you're able to report how many miles are devoted to each, says Goodman, you can take the rate of 50.5 cents per mile and apply it to the business-only miles when calculating your deduction.

Martin Chan, a Philadelphia CPA, notes that your 6,000-lb SUV could also qualify for a Section 179 deduction - but again, only if you use it for mainly business use.

"Think of the 179 as a bonus depreciation for $25,000," he says. Once you calculate your business usage, you can deduct $25,000 from that number, then apply the rest towards accelerated depreciation.

A sample calculation: If you purchase a $60,000 car in 2007 and calculate that 70% of the usage was for business, you're able to apply the deduction to a cost basis of $42,000. Then, you can take a Section 179 deduction of $25,000 and take accelerated depreciation for the rest.