For IRS purposes, the lawn mower depreciation life is seven years if you use it in a landscaping, property management, or other non-farm business, and five years if you use it in farming or at a residential rental property you own. That answer rarely matters in practice, though, because bonus depreciation and Section 179 usually let you deduct the entire purchase price in the first year.
Which Recovery Period Applies to Your Mower
The IRS uses the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) to assign business assets to recovery-period classes. The class your mower falls into depends on how your business uses it, not on the mower itself.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 946 (2025), How To Depreciate Property
Seven-Year Property: Landscaping and General Business Use
A commercial mower used by a landscaping company, lawn care service, property management firm, or any other non-farm business is 7-year property. This falls under Asset Class 00.22 in the IRS depreciation tables.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 946 (2025), How To Depreciate Property
Five-Year Property: Farm and Rental Use
If the mower is part of an agricultural operation, MACRS treats it as farm machinery, which is 5-year property. The same 5-year period applies if you buy a mower for use at a residential rental property you own. Equipment used in residential rental activities follows a different classification than the same equipment used in a standalone landscaping business.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 946 (2025), How To Depreciate Property – Section: Which Property Class Applies Under GDS?
Why Seven-Year Property Actually Spans Eight Tax Years
The IRS default is the half-year convention, which treats every asset placed in service during the year as though you started using it at the midpoint. You get half a year’s depreciation in year one and half in the final year, so 7-year property fully depreciates across eight tax years and 5-year property across six.
A different rule applies when more than 40% of all depreciable property you place in service during the year enters use in the last three months. In that case you must use the mid-quarter convention, which assigns depreciation based on the specific quarter the asset was activated. This matters if you make a large equipment purchase late in the year. All depreciation is reported on Form 4562.3Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4562 (2025)
Why Most Owners Never Use the 5- or 7-Year Schedule
Two provisions let you deduct the full cost of a mower in the year you put it to work. For a typical commercial mower in the $5,000 to $20,000 range, one of them will almost certainly apply.
100% Bonus Depreciation
The One, Big, Beautiful Bill restored permanent 100% bonus depreciation for qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025. Buy a mower in 2026 and you can deduct 100% of the cost in the first year with no dollar cap and no business-income limitation.4Internal Revenue Service. Treasury, IRS Issue Guidance on the Additional First Year Depreciation Deduction Amended as Part of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill
Bonus depreciation can create or increase a net operating loss, which Section 179 cannot. If you would rather spread the deduction across multiple years, you can elect to take only 40% as bonus depreciation for property placed in service during the first tax year ending after January 19, 2025.4Internal Revenue Service. Treasury, IRS Issue Guidance on the Additional First Year Depreciation Deduction Amended as Part of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill
Used mowers qualify as long as the equipment is new to you. You can’t have used it before purchase, you can’t buy it from a related party, and your cost basis can’t be determined by the seller’s adjusted basis.5Internal Revenue Service. Additional First Year Depreciation Deduction (Bonus) – FAQ
Section 179 Deduction
Section 179 lets you elect to expense the full cost of qualifying property in the year it’s placed in service. The dollar limits for 2026 are far above what any single-mower purchase involves, so the cap is not the concern. The relevant restriction is that the Section 179 deduction cannot exceed your total taxable income from all active trades or businesses. It cannot create a net loss. Any disallowed portion carries forward.3Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4562 (2025)
You make the Section 179 election on Part I of Form 4562, filed with your return for the year the property was placed in service.3Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4562 (2025)
Choosing Between the Two
For most 2026 mower purchases, bonus depreciation is the simpler path. No dollar cap, no income limit, applies automatically unless you elect out. Section 179 is more useful when you want to expense some assets while depreciating others over time, or when you’re managing income across multiple businesses. The two can be combined on a single asset, but for one mower there’s rarely a reason to split things.
Mowers Under $2,500: The De Minimis Safe Harbor
If you buy a lower-cost mower and don’t have audited financial statements, the de minimis safe harbor lets you deduct up to $2,500 per item or invoice as an ordinary business expense rather than treating the purchase as a depreciable asset. No depreciation, no Section 179 election, no bonus depreciation calculation. You deduct the cost as a supply expense.6Internal Revenue Service. Tangible Property Final Regulations
This works well for push mowers and smaller equipment. You make the election by attaching a statement to your tax return for the year the expense was paid or incurred. Anything above $2,500 has to go through one of the depreciation or expensing methods above.
Business Use, Recapture, and Selling the Mower
Every method here requires the mower to be used more than 50% for business. You depreciate only the business-use percentage of the cost, not the full purchase price. If business use later drops to 50% or below after you’ve claimed Section 179 or bonus depreciation, you have to recapture the excess deduction: you’ll owe tax on the difference between what you claimed and what straight-line depreciation over the standard recovery period would have allowed.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 179 – Election to Expense Certain Depreciable Business Assets Recapture is added to income in the year business use falls below the threshold and reported on Form 4797.
Selling the mower triggers a separate recapture rule. Start with your original cost, subtract all depreciation claimed (including Section 179 and bonus depreciation), and compare that adjusted basis to the sale price. If you expensed the full $15,000 purchase in year one, your basis is zero. Sell for $3,000 three years later and you have a $3,000 gain, taxed as ordinary income under Section 1245, not at capital gains rates.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1245 – Gain From Dispositions of Certain Depreciable Property
Ordinary income treatment applies to all gain up to the total depreciation you’ve claimed. Only gain above that amount becomes a Section 1231 gain that may qualify for long-term capital gains rates.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1231 – Property Used in the Trade or Business and Involuntary Conversions For a fully expensed mower sold below original cost, the entire sale price is ordinary income. That’s the trade-off for the first-year deduction. A sale below adjusted basis produces a deductible loss. Report all sales, trades, and dispositions on Form 4797.10Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 4797 (2025)