If you have vehicle for business use (over 50%), you can choose to either put the title under your business or personal name. Both are acceptable from IRS, you need to determine based on a few different factors.
The advantage of putting under your business name is to take sec 179 and bonus depreciation to accelerate the depreciation deduction.
However, the potential problems of holding the title by the business are higher insurance premium in general and relatively more difficult if you need to finance the car yet your business does not have long profitable history.
If you have to hold the title in your personal name, you should set up an accountable plan to reimburse yourself. You can either choose to reimburse by the actual expense (including straight line depreciation) or standard mileage ($0.545 per mile in 2017; in which $0.25 per mile is depreciation). Your business should reimburse you by getting your mileage log sheet as proof.
The good news to you is the reimbursement is tax free.
In case you sell your car, you will need to calculate the gain or loss even though it is held by your personal name when it is being used for business more than 50%.
We can illustrate the calculations by the following example:
oringal cost basis (under personal name) $10,000
standard mileage claimed over the years: 10,000 miles. The accumulated depreciation is $2,500 ($0.25/mile * 10,000 miles)
The business adjusted basis is $7,500 ($10,000- $2,500)
If you sell the car at $5,000, you can report $2,500 business loss ($5,000-$7,500).
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