> I believe in keeping the books on a tax basis, since I am not publicly listed and subject to the SEC regulations nor do I have the requirements of government contracting.
The problem I have with tax-based depreciation is that--especially in recent years (even before the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act)--the tax reg's have been increasingly focused on simply deducting the full cost of fixed assets in the year of purchase, with lots of small businesses deducting the cost of most or all new asset acquisitions in the year of purchase under Sec. 179.
Some people just plug their tax preparer's depreciation figures into QuickBooks as depreciation expense...but that often leads to big distortions both in the P&L and the Balance Sheet, making them close to useless for measuring profitability, looking at income trends, or estimating return on assets or equity.
My personal opinion is that businesses who actually use the P&L and Balance Sheet to monitor their business position and financial progress should maintain their own (non-tax) depreciation schedules, separate from what their tax preparer does for income tax purposes.
