Tax Deductions for RV Owners

Not in Canada. A wonderful country but no tax deductions for owners of RVs.

It looks as though the laws might be changing in the United States causing a bit of a stir for RV dealers and customers alike.

This came in my Reuters feed:

Recreational vehicle retailers from across the country were sipping morning coffee at a convention in Las Vegas earlier this month when word whipped through the hotel’s “dealers’ lounge” that the U.S. Congress was considering tax law changes threatening their businesses.

Republicans in the House of Representatives wanted to jettison a part of the tax code that lets dealers of RVs, cars, boats, even farm and construction machinery, write off all the interest expense of keeping inventories of vehicles on their sales lots.

The RV dealers jumped on the phones to their representatives in Washington, adding to a wave of calls made by members of the powerful National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) as well as lobbyists for boat dealers and farm machinery dealers.

And then I came across this news item on CNBC:

If a provision in the House-passed tax bill makes it into the final legislation, owners of boats and recreational vehicles who write off the interest on their loans would lose that deduction.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act approved by the House last week eliminates the deductibility of mortgage interest on second homes. For RVs and boats that qualify as such — those with a kitchen, bathroom and at least one bunk — owners currently can deduct the interest they pay on financing those assets.

It came as a bit of a surprise to me that my neighbours to the south can write off the interest on their RV loans. At least for now.

Sales in the RV industry are white hot so I’m not sure how much of a dampening effect this might have on the industry. From the RV Industry Association:

The recreation vehicle (RV) industry’s shipments will reach 472,200 units in 2017, the highest annual total since the data has been collected, and a 9.6% increase from the number shipped last calendar year, announced Frank Hugelmeyer, President of the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA).

According to a new forecast presented today by Hugelmeyer at RVIA’s Committee Week luncheon, RV shipments are expected to reach even greater heights in 2018, with wholesale production projected at 487,200 units.

Let’s hope that there will still be some sites available when all of these RVs go looking for a place to camp.