Section 179 in 2026: A Freelancer's Equipment Write-Off Guide
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, restored 100 percent bonus depreciation and doubled the Section 179 small-business expensing cap. Combined with the 2026 inflation adjustments, US freelancers can now write off equipment in the year they buy it more aggressively than at any point in the last decade. Here is how to use it.
The Delivvo team· May 24, 2026 10 min read
For most of the last decade, a US freelancer buying a new laptop, a camera body, or any other piece of business equipment had a choice that looked deceptively simple: deduct the full cost this year under Section 179, or spread the deduction across several years through depreciation. The choice never mattered that much for a sub-$5,000 laptop. It mattered enormously for anyone equipping a real workspace.
In July 2025 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — usually shortened to OBBBA — changed the math. It doubled the Section 179 expensing cap, restored 100 percent bonus depreciation, and made both permanent rather than letting them keep phasing down. For 2026, the inflation-adjusted limits are higher still. This is the practical read on what that means for a freelancer, what actually qualifies, and how to claim the deduction without getting it wrong.
What Section 179 actually is
Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code lets a business — including a self-employed freelancer filing a Schedule C — deduct the full cost of qualifying business equipment in the year it is *placed in service*, rather than depreciating it over the asset's "useful life" of three to seven years.
The economic point is timing. A $4,000 camera capitalised over seven years gives you a roughly $570 deduction each year. The same camera elected under Section 179 gives you the entire $4,000 deduction in the year you bought it, against this year's taxable freelance income. If you are in a good year and you want to reduce your tax bill, the Section 179 election is the lever.
The election lives on Form 4562, *Depreciation and Amortization*, which you file alongside your Schedule C (IRS, About Form 4562). Part I of that form is where Section 179 specifically gets calculated; the deduction then flows through to your Schedule C as an expense (IRS, Instructions for Form 4562).
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What changed under OBBBA
OBBBA, signed into law in July 2025, made three changes that matter for freelancers.
For most freelancers those caps are theoretical — almost nobody is buying $2 million of equipment. The practical change is the second one.
Second, OBBBA permanently restored 100 percent first-year bonus depreciation for qualified property acquired and placed in service after January 19, 2025. The 100 percent rate had been phasing down — 80 percent in 2023, 60 percent in 2024, headed to zero by 2027 under the old schedule — and OBBBA reset it to 100 percent and made it permanent (Section179.org, Section 179 vs bonus depreciation).
Third, OBBBA made both Section 179 expensing and 100 percent bonus depreciation permanent fixtures of the code rather than temporary provisions due to expire. For a freelancer making purchasing decisions, that removes a chunk of the timing uncertainty that has shaped equipment purchases since 2018.
The combined effect: a freelancer can now elect Section 179 up to the (very high) cap, and for any qualifying purchase above the cap or where Section 179 does not apply, fall back to 100 percent bonus depreciation. Either route produces a full first-year write-off for almost any equipment purchase a freelancer is realistically making.
A workspace with a laptop, camera lens, and an open notebook used for tax planning
What actually qualifies for a freelancer
The list of qualifying property is wider than most freelancers realise.
Computers, monitors, and peripherals. Laptops, desktops, external monitors, docks, ergonomic chairs — anything that is tangible business property used more than 50 percent of the time for the freelance business qualifies.
Cameras, lenses, lighting, audio gear. Standard equipment for photographers, videographers, podcasters, and content creators. The "placed in service" date is when the equipment is actually ready and available for business use, not when you ordered it.
Off-the-shelf software. Software that is generally available to the public and not custom-developed qualifies for Section 179. Note that most SaaS subscriptions — which are not "purchased" in the depreciation sense — are simply ordinary business expenses on Schedule C and do not need Section 179 at all.
Vehicles, with rules. This is where it gets nuanced. Passenger vehicles are subject to "luxury auto" limits that cap the deductible amount. But vehicles with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating above 6,000 pounds — many SUVs and pickups — sit in a separate category. For 2026, the Section 179 cap on heavy SUVs (GVWR between 6,001 and 14,000 pounds) is $32,000, after which 100 percent bonus depreciation can be applied to the remaining basis (IRS, Instructions for Form 4562). The vehicle still must be used more than 50 percent of the time for business, and the business-use percentage must be substantiated with a mileage log.
What does not qualify. Land. Buildings (with narrow exceptions for qualified improvement property). Property used outside the United States. Property used 50 percent or less for business. Property received as a gift or by inheritance.
The income limit nobody talks about
There is a Section 179 limitation that catches freelancers in their first profitable year and is easy to miss. The Section 179 deduction in any given year is capped at your *taxable income from the active conduct of a trade or business*. You cannot use Section 179 to create or deepen a loss.
If you net $15,000 from freelancing and buy $20,000 of equipment, you cannot elect Section 179 on the full $20,000 — you can only elect up to $15,000, and the remaining $5,000 carries over to the next year. Bonus depreciation does not have the same income limit; it can produce a loss. So a freelancer in a thin-income year often does better electing 100 percent bonus depreciation on a large purchase than electing Section 179.
For routine freelancer-scale purchases on a freelancer-scale income, this limitation rarely binds. But anyone making a heavy equipment investment in a slow year should run the comparison both ways before filing.
Section 179 versus bonus depreciation — when to use which
Both produce a full first-year deduction. The choice depends on three things.
Income. If you are at a loss or close to it, bonus depreciation is the cleaner choice because it has no income limit. If you are comfortably profitable, either works.
State conformity. Many states fully conform to federal Section 179 but do not conform to federal bonus depreciation. If you are filing in a non-conforming state, electing Section 179 may give you the same federal deduction with a cleaner state outcome. This is the single most important practical reason to default to Section 179 where the income limit allows.
Selective expensing. Section 179 can be elected on an asset-by-asset basis at any amount up to the cap. Bonus depreciation defaults to 100 percent on all qualifying property in a class unless you affirmatively elect out. For freelancers with multiple purchases, Section 179 offers finer control.
The practical heuristic for most freelancers: elect Section 179 first, up to your taxable income; use 100 percent bonus depreciation for anything beyond that.
How to actually claim it on a tax return
The mechanical workflow on a Schedule C return is well-established.
Buy the equipment and place it in service during the tax year. Keep the receipt and, for any item used both personally and for the business, note the business-use percentage and how you determined it. For vehicles, that means a contemporaneous mileage log.
When you (or your tax preparer) file, the equipment goes on Form 4562. Part I handles the Section 179 election: list the property, the cost, and the elected deduction. Part II handles bonus depreciation. Part III handles regular depreciation for anything not fully expensed. The totals flow through to your Schedule C as part of your business expenses (IRS, About Form 4562). The IRS's full guidance on the depreciation framework — including how Section 179 interacts with bonus depreciation and ordinary MACRS depreciation — lives in Publication 946 (IRS, Publication 946: How to Depreciate Property).
A freelancer using QuickBooks, FreshBooks, or any of the QuickBooks Self-Employed replacements will see Section 179 surface as an option during tax-time categorisation rather than as a setting you toggle in advance. The deduction is claimed on the return, not on the books.
Two pitfalls are worth knowing before you file. "Listed property" — vehicles and certain electronics — must be used more than 50 percent for business to qualify for Section 179 or bonus depreciation, and dropping below that threshold in a later year can trigger recapture of the accelerated deduction as ordinary income. And if you fully expense equipment under Section 179 and then sell or scrap it before the end of its normal depreciation period, the gain on disposition is generally treated as ordinary income up to the amount of the deduction taken. Neither is a reason to avoid the deduction. They are reasons to keep a contemporaneous business-use log and to make purchases you actually intend to keep using.
The 2026 timing question — buy now or wait?
A practical question for any freelancer considering a larger purchase: does it matter whether you buy in December or January?
Yes, in two ways. First, the deduction lands in the tax year the equipment is *placed in service* — meaning ready and available for business use, not just ordered. A December purchase that does not arrive until January is a January deduction. Second, the 2026 inflation-adjusted Section 179 caps are higher than 2025's, and they will rise again in 2027. For freelancers near the cap that incremental adjustment matters; for everyone else it is a non-event.
The bigger timing point is income-based. Section 179 is most valuable in your highest-income year. If 2026 is a strong year and 2027 looks weaker, accelerate purchases into 2026 to use the deduction against the higher marginal rate. If 2026 is weak, defer where you can.
This is also why the equipment-deduction question belongs inside the wider tax planning loop, not at it. Pair it with the 2026 freelance tax guide for the overall structure, and with the estimated quarterly tax guide so your projected liability already factors in the planned deductions — buying $8,000 of equipment in November and not adjusting Q4 estimateds is a common, avoidable overpayment.
Delivvo gives freelancers a branded client portal where every paid invoice is recorded with date, gateway, and amount — so when it is time to size Section 179 elections against actual taxable income, the income side of the calculation is a number you can read off, not one you have to reconstruct from screenshots. See how it works →
The takeaway
For US freelancers, the 2026 picture on equipment deductions is the most generous it has been in years. The Section 179 expensing cap has doubled under OBBBA and is permanent. One-hundred-percent bonus depreciation is back and permanent. The inflation adjustments for 2026 lift both ceilings further. For the realistic scale of a freelancer's purchases, every standard piece of business equipment — laptops, cameras, lenses, audio gear, a qualifying heavy vehicle — can be fully written off in the year it is placed in service.
The work is on the documentation side, not the deduction side. Keep the receipts, log the business-use percentage where it matters, and file Form 4562 alongside your Schedule C. Most of the savings is the timing — pulling a deduction forward by six years — and the way to capture it is to make the election on purpose, in the year that helps your tax bill the most.
