A lot of roofing contractors are still budgeting equipment purchases against a depreciation schedule that no longer exists. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, permanently restored 100% bonus depreciation for qualifying property placed in service after January 19, 2025, and raised Section 179 limits on top of it. Combined, the two provisions mean a roofing company can fully expense almost any truck, trailer, or piece of field equipment it buys in the year it's put to work — no five-to-seven-year depreciation schedule, no scheduled phase-down eating into the deduction each year going forward.
The Old Phase-Down vs. the New Permanent Rate
Before the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, bonus depreciation was winding down on a fixed schedule: 60% of an asset's cost could be expensed immediately in 2024, dropping to 40% in 2025, and scheduled to fall to 20% in 2026 before disappearing entirely in 2027. That schedule is gone. Qualifying new and used property acquired and placed in service after January 19, 2025 now gets 100% bonus depreciation, with no expiration date built into the law.
| Year Placed in Service | Old Bonus Depreciation Rate | Current Rate (OBBBA) |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 60% | 60% (unchanged, before Jan 19, 2025) |
| 2025 (after Jan 19) | 40% | 100% |
| 2026 | 20% | 100% |
| 2027 and beyond | 0% | 100%, permanent |
Section 179 moved up alongside it. For 2026, the deduction limit is $2,560,000, with the benefit phasing out dollar-for-dollar once total qualifying purchases for the year exceed $4,090,000 — a ceiling almost no roofing contractor will ever reach in a single year.
Worked Example: $125,000 in Equipment, $37,500 Off This Year's Tax Bill
A roofing contractor buys an $85,000 crew truck (GVWR over 6,000 lbs) and $40,000 in tear-off equipment and a trailer in November 2026 — $125,000 total, both placed in service before December 31.
| Item | Under the Old 20% Schedule | Under 100% Bonus (OBBBA) |
|---|---|---|
| Total equipment cost | $125,000 | $125,000 |
| First-year deduction | $25,000 (bonus) + remainder via Sec. 179/normal depreciation, capped by taxable income | $125,000 in full |
| Tax savings at 30% marginal rate | ~$7,500 first year, remainder over years | $37,500 in the current tax year |
Under the old schedule, a contractor with tight taxable income in a given year could easily end up carrying most of that $125,000 forward across five or more years of ordinary depreciation. Under the current rule, the full amount reduces this year's taxable income the moment the equipment goes into service — real cash that stays in the business instead of going to estimated taxes in January.
Section 179 vs. Bonus Depreciation: Which to Use First
The two provisions work differently and most roofing companies end up using both. Section 179 lets you elect which specific assets to expense, up to the $2,560,000 annual limit, but the deduction can't exceed your business's net income for the year and can't create a loss. Bonus depreciation applies automatically to qualifying property, carries no dollar cap, and can push a profitable-on-paper year into a net operating loss that carries forward to offset future income. In practice, a CPA typically applies Section 179 first, up to the year's profit level, then lets bonus depreciation absorb the rest — which is exactly why the crew truck and equipment example above lands at the full $125,000 regardless of which mechanism does the work.
The One Decision That Actually Matters: Timing
None of this is a reason to buy equipment you don't need. A deduction worth 30 cents on the dollar never justifies a purchase that wasn't already justified by the business. Where it does matter is timing a purchase you were already planning. A truck or piece of equipment you were going to buy in January anyway, moved into December and placed in service before December 31, captures the deduction a full year earlier — which matters directly for a seasonal business managing Q4 and Q1 cash flow around the off-season.
Where This Connects to Your Books
None of this deduction shows up correctly if the purchase isn't booked right. Equipment and vehicles need to hit a fixed asset account in QuickBooks, not get buried in a job cost or "miscellaneous expense" line, and the in-service date needs to be documented, since that's the date the deduction is anchored to, not the purchase date. We regularly find roofing companies that bought a truck mid-year and had it sitting in an expense account instead of as a depreciable asset, which either overstates job costs on the P&L or hands the CPA a mess to untangle every March. At JobCostBooks, clients on the Growth and Pro plans get fixed asset purchases classified and dated correctly the month they happen, so the deduction is ready for your CPA at year-end instead of reconstructed from bank statements. For how equipment and labor costs flow into what a job actually costs to run, see our guide: The True Cost of a Roofing Job: Why Your Numbers Are Wrong.