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Are you trying to get Air to pay? Good luck, let us know what happens. How much did the bike cost new? And then like you said 1/2 of that is what? My bikes ( that I would consider loaning) are about $600 new, I would not claim on my STR insurance for $300 its less than my deductible and I would not even bother with Air that will go nowhere. It is your GUEST that owes you the money, get it from him.
RR
I’m thinking that @adrienne12 is planning to deduct half the cost of the bike as a business expense. @adrienne12 may have already deducted it on a previous year’s taxes, but I doubt it from the description that it was primarily for personal use. If it was never deducted, and the bike was recently put into service (as in, right before it was totaled), only the current value can be deducted, and you’d probably need a receipt or other documentation to show how you determine the value.
(This is based on my understanding of US taxes - I’m not a CPA.)
So the police was able to find the girl’s family and i filed a claim with their insurance company. i took the bike to the bike shop to estimate the repair amount. trust me, based on its state, it’s totaled. the bike was 500$ new (have the receipt because i bought it online). i only rode it a couple of times, fact proven by the kilometer thing attached to it, which device i purchased from the same store I took the bike when it arrived, to be assembled. The same store that does the evaluation now. And of course by its tires.
im guessing if the insurance reimburses me for 250 - although the bike had about 50 miles on it) I can’t deduct it from business expense, can I?
It all depends on the fiscal rules in your country, and how the bike was bought.
If I bought the bike for the business and the business name is on the invoice, it would already be a business expense.
A replacement would be a business expense too.
That is why it is important to keep business and private seperated.
Personal tax filing, you are out of luck. From 2018 to 2025, U.S. tax code has eliminated the personal property casualty deduction unless you are in a Presidentially-declared disaster area. Even then, you have to itemize, substract $100, and it must be 10% or more of your adjusted gross income. Valuation is the lesser of your cost basis (depreciated value) or its (damaged) fair market value minus any insurance payment.
If you booked as a business expense the entire value of the bike when purchased, you’ve already recovered. Or, if you’ve been depreciating the bike as a business asset (or even if you neglected to report the depreciation expense and therefore never benefited from it), you could expense the lower of cost basis (purchase price minus depreciation, guessing bike is 5 year equipment depreciation but check depreciation tables), or (damaged) fair market value after the insurance payment.
However, it is apparently a shared business/personal asset, as you said you’ve ridden it as well as your guest. One approach is contemporaneous documentation showing the personal vs guest use percentages. Another route is rental days divided by personal plus rental days percentage to apply to the loss remainder if the bike is always available to guests on rental days, and to you only on personal days.
For discussion purposes only, not a professional tax opinion.