The depreciation sheet your CPA wishes you had

Ask a host what their rig cost and you'll get a confident answer: "Thirty-two thousand." Ask what its basis is — the figure depreciation is actually computed from — and the confidence evaporates. That gap is where deductions get lost, because the purchase price is only the first line of the sheet your CPA actually needs.

Basis is a build-up, not a price

Your rig's basis starts with what you paid and keeps going:

• Purchase price — from the bill of sale, in the name of whoever owns the rig (you, or your LLC — the chain matters)
• Use tax / sales tax paid at registration — in most states this is thousands of dollars on an RV, and it belongs in basis, not in a forgotten DMV envelope
• Title and one-time registration charges — the one-time title charges capitalize into basis too (the recurring annual tab portion is an operating expense instead)
• Less: anything already deducted another way — so the same dollar is never counted twice

The proof for every line is a document you already touched once: the bill of sale, the DOL/registration receipt. Filed with the sheet, they turn "I think it was about…" into a number that survives questions.

Placed in service: the date that starts the clock

Depreciation doesn't start when you buy the rig. It starts when the rig is placed in service — available for rent: listed, ready, and rentable, even if the first guest arrives weeks later. Buy in November, list in December, and your depreciation year starts in December — with everything that timing implies for a year-end purchase. Buy in December but don't make it available until February, and the clock starts in February, next tax year. The date is a fact you establish with evidence — the listing, the photos, the storage move — not a date you pick in April.

The rest of the sheet

A complete depreciation sheet carries, per asset:

• Description and VIN/HIN, purchase date, placed-in-service date
• The full basis build-up above, with document references
• How the rig split its year: rental days vs personal-use days (personal use can shrink or gate the deduction — there's a specific test, covered in our 14-days guide)
• Any depreciation claimed in prior years — pulled from last year's return, because this year's sheet must continue the story, not restart it
• The method and rate your CPA applies, and the remaining basis carried forward

That last line is the one hosts never have: the running balance. Without it, year two's preparer re-derives everything, year three's guesses, and a sale or an audit in year four turns into archaeology.

One more classification your CPA will ask about: listed property

A rental RV or travel trailer carries a tax classification most hosts have never heard of: listed property. Under IRS Publication 946, listed property includes "any other property used for transportation" — and the publication's own caution says vehicles over the 6,000-pound threshold are still listed property even though they aren't "passenger automobiles." Two practical consequences follow, and neither is a detail:

• Your rig is not a "passenger automobile," so the passenger-auto dollar caps don't apply to it. Those caps are for 4-wheeled vehicles rated at 6,000 pounds or less. A Class C motorhome is far heavier — but being outside the caps does not put it outside the listed-property rules. It stays listed property, just without the caps.
• The 50% business-use test gates the method. Listed property must be used more than 50% for qualified business use to qualify for bonus depreciation, the section 179 deduction, or declining-balance MACRS. At or below 50%, depreciation must be figured straight-line over the ADS recovery period, with no bonus — and if business use drops to 50% or below in a later year, excess depreciation already claimed is recaptured as ordinary income. Your packet flags exactly which side of that line each rig falls on, from your recorded day counts.
• No records, no depreciation. The IRS is blunt here: no depreciation or section 179 deduction for listed property unless business use is proven with adequate records — and those records must be kept as long as recapture can still occur. Your rental-vs-personal day counts and your mileage log are that record, which is why the packet treats missing day counts as a gap instead of a blank to fill in later.

None of this changes the sheet's job. It just means the sheet has to carry one more fact per asset — its business-use share, proven by records — because that fact decides the method, not just the amount.

Why this sheet, specifically, is worth an hour of your year

Depreciation is usually the largest single deduction a rental rig produces — larger than insurance, storage, and fees combined in the early years. It's also the deduction the IRS examines most closely on small rental businesses, precisely because it rests on facts (dates, day counts, documents) rather than on bank statements. A clean sheet with its proofs attached is the difference between a deduction and a negotiation.

CloseFleet builds the depreciation sheet as a standing part of every packet: basis itemized line by line with its documents indexed, placed-in-service date recorded, rental vs personal days counted from your trips, and prior depreciation carried forward year over year — with anything missing (a title fee you haven't entered, a placed-in-service date you haven't set) flagged as a gap instead of invented. For one rig with straightforward books, the packet is free.

The federal sources

• Basis, placed-in-service, and how depreciation is figured: IRS, Publication 946, How To Depreciate Property
• Listed property, the 50% business-use test, and adequate records: IRS, Publication 946, How To Depreciate Property

CloseFleet organizes records for review by your CPA; it is not a tax preparer and provides no tax advice. Whether bonus depreciation or a slower schedule fits your situation is your CPA's call — the sheet's job is to make sure they make it from complete facts.

Upload the year — platform exports, statements, the rig's facts — and get the CPA Packet: income reconciled, expenses categorized, mileage logged, depreciation sheet built, questions flagged for your CPA. Free for one rig with straightforward books.