If you lease a farm building or equipment, you must determine whether or not the agreement must be treated as a conditional sales contract rather than a lease. If the agreement is treated as a conditional sales contract, the payments under the agreement (so far as they do not represent interest or other charges) are payments for the purchase of the property. Do not deduct these payments as rent, but capitalize the cost of the property and recover this cost through depreciation.
Example.
You lease new farm equipment from a dealer who both sells and leases. The agreement includes an option to purchase the equipment for a specified price. The lease payments and the specified option price equal the sales price of the equipment plus interest. Under the agreement, you are responsible for maintenance, repairs, and the risk of loss. For federal income tax purposes, the agreement is a conditional sales contract. You cannot deduct any of the lease payments as rent. You can deduct interest, repairs, insurance, depreciation, and other expenses related to the equipment.
Motor vehicle leases. Special rules apply to lease agreements that have a terminal rental adjustment clause. In general, this is a clause that provides for a rental price adjustment based on the amount the lessor is able to sell the vehicle for at the end of the lease. If your rental agreement contains a terminal rental adjustment clause, treat the agreement as a lease if the agreement otherwise qualifies as a lease. For more information, see Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 7701(h).
Leveraged leases. Special rules apply to leveraged leases of equipment (arrangements in which the equipment is financed by a nonrecourse loan from a third party). For more information, see Publication 535, chapter 3, and Revenue Procedure 2001-28, which begins on page 1156 of Internal Revenue Bulletin 2001-19 at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb01-19.pdf.
See Publication 225 at IRS.gov for additional information.