State Sales Taxes

• Through the 2011 tax year, the U.S. government has made it an option for taxpayers to elect to deduct their state sales taxes from their federal income tax return. Before this change, only state income taxes could be deducted. With this modification, you can choose to deduct either the state income taxes or the state sales taxes. If you saved your sales receipt from when you purchased your RV, you can deduct the full sales tax amount using Schedule A on your income tax return.
  
  

Motorized Vehicle Stimulus

• In early 2009, the U.S. government passed a stimulus bill known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It was passed in an attempt to stimulate a stagnant U.S. economy and it offered a tax reward to buyers of new motorized vehicles. With this stimulus act, taxpayers who purchased a new motorized vehicle such as a passenger car, motorcycle or recreational vehicle could deduct the sales taxes incurred from that purchase.
  
  

RV Purchase Dates

• The 2009 stimulus tax deduction limited eligibility based partially on the date of your purchase. If you bought your RV after Feb. 16, 2009, but before Jan 1, 2010, you qualify to deduct the sales taxes on your income tax return. Most taxpayers took the deduction when they filed their 2009 tax returns, but if you did not pay the sales taxes on your purchase until 2010, you can claim this deduction by filling out Schedule L and returning it with your income tax forms.
  
  

Deduction Limitations

• If you are claiming the stimulus-related tax deduction for your RV purchase, you can only deduct the sales taxes for the first $49,500 of what you paid. If you paid more than that for your RV, you cannot deduct the entire amount of the sales taxes. This stimulus deduction is also not available to married filing jointly taxpayers who have an adjusted gross income exceeding $260,000 or head of household and single filers who earned more than $135,000.