Boom trucks and capital cost allowance

R 03 mWhich CCA class? It is not settled

The class depends on how the unit is classified: as one truck or as a chassis plus a crane, and what the truck is designed and used for. Schedule II names no crane, boom or hoist¹, and no CRA guidance we found places a truck-mounted crane in a class. Four classes can come into play. We also found nothing on whether the crane and the chassis are one property or two, whether a truck that carries loads on its deck is "designed for hauling freight", or whether the proposed immediate write-off would reach a boom truck.

R 06 mClass 10: automotive and contractor's movable equipment

Class 10 is written in two halves¹. The first covers property "not included in any other class" and starts with paragraph (a), automotive equipment. The second covers property that "would otherwise be included in another Class in this Schedule", including paragraph (h), contractor's movable equipment acquired for a construction business or for lease to one, except property in Class 22 or 38.

CRA's archived bulletin IT-306R2 reads paragraph (h) as equipment that normally is moved from place to place in the course of a contractor's business. It says equipment leased by a contractor which would qualify if the contractor owned it is Class 10 property of the lessor³.

Our reading, for your accountant to test. For a contractor, paragraph (h) can pull a truck into Class 10 even where another class would otherwise take it. Outside construction, paragraph (a) applies only if no other class does, which is where Class 16 comes in; a crane that is its own property and fits no class may land in Class 8. No CRA ruling we found applies this to a boom truck.

R 09 mClass 16: freight trucks

CRA lists Class 16 at 40%². Paragraph 16(g) sets three tests, one of them a GVWR over 11,788 kg, and a truck must meet all three¹:

1. Designed for hauling freight. Alberta's boom truck trade scope describes the chassis as one that typically keeps a payload hauling capacity⁴. Whether a deck that carries the loads the crane will place counts as freight design is not settled in anything we read.
2. Primarily used in a business that includes hauling freight, by you or by a person you do not deal with at arm's length. A truck that mostly lifts, rather than hauls, may not pass, whatever its design.
3. The weight. Paragraph 16(g) takes the term GVWR from the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations; federal emission rules define it as the manufacturer's maximum design loaded weight⁵.

Do not read Class 16 as federal Class 7 and 8: Class 7 starts above 11,793 kg⁵, not the 11,788 kg in the CCA rule¹, and Class 16 also needs freight design and use. A heavy tandem boom truck can clear the weight test and still fail the other two. See licence class and NSC and boom truck sizes. The gap is real money: 40% a year against 30% for Class 10².

R 12 mWhy cranes generally are not Class 38

Class 38 takes power-operated movable equipment designed for excavating, moving, placing or compacting earth, rock, concrete or asphalt, at 30%². Its text points back to Class 22, which covers the same equipment but only property acquired before 1990, so Class 38 is the live class for a truck bought now¹. CRA's bulletin IT-469R, dated September 28, 1990, says cranes and hoists used to lift or place objects or material generally do not qualify for Class 22 or 38⁶. CRA marks it archived and not updated, so treat it as an old interpretation, not current law.

The same bulletin leaves a door open. Lifting equipment may fall into Class 22 or 38 if it is designed, modified or acquired with special accessories so it can excavate, move, place or compact those materials. It gives a truck-mounted cement mixer as qualifying, because it is designed to put its contents directly into place⁶. A 1973 Federal Court decision went the same way for mobile cranes sold with accessories that let them work as excavators: Class 22, not Class 10⁷. It applied older wording, and we did not check later treatment. A boom truck fitted for concrete bucket work is not addressed.

For a boom truck, this matters less than it looks. Class 38 and Class 10 both carry 30%², and paragraph 10(h) excludes property that belongs in Class 22 or 38¹. The question that moves the deduction is Class 16.

R 15 mThe Accelerated Investment Incentive

Normally only half the net addition counts in the year a truck is acquired: the half-year rule. The accelerated first-year allowance suspends it. CRA describes the original measure as up to three times the normal first-year deduction⁸ and says two times for property that becomes available for use from 2024 to 2027⁸. That page was last modified 2025-07-21 and does not mention property acquired after 2024⁸.

The regulation, consolidated to September 21, 2026, does, and it splits the incentive in two:

• Accelerated investment incentive property: acquired after November 20, 2018 and before 2025, available for use before 2028⁹. Factor 1/2 if available before 2024, nil after 2023¹⁰.
• Reaccelerated investment incentive property: acquired after 2024, available for use before 2034⁹. Factor 1/2 if available before 2030, nil after 2029¹⁰.

That matches the 2024 Fall Economic Statement proposal¹¹. The sections' amendment histories list S.C. 2026, c. 3, Bill C-15's chapter, which received royal assent on March 26, 2026¹²¹³.

Computed. A factor of 1/2 lifts the first-year base to 1.5 times cost with the half-year rule gone: three times the normal deduction. A nil factor leaves the base at cost: two times. A truck acquired in 2026 and available before 2030 gets 45% of cost in year one in Class 10 and 60% in Class 16; from 2030 to 2033, 30% and 40%. CRA's Class 10 example shows the same 15% against 45%⁸.

Assumed: the truck is alone in its class, no disposals, full 12-month tax years, and the declining-balance rate on what is left each year². Used trucks can qualify, with limits: property already claimed on qualifies only if neither you nor a non-arm's-length person owned it before, and it did not come to you on a tax-deferred rollover⁸.

R 18 mThe proposed Productivity Mega Deduction

The proposal is a permanent immediate write-off for most depreciable property acquired on or after September 15, 2026¹⁴. It excludes some buildings and classes and certain vehicles in Classes 10 and 10.1, without saying which Class 10 vehicles¹⁴. Property that does not qualify would keep the accelerated allowance above¹⁴.

On the release's wording only: a Class 16 truck is not named in the exclusions¹⁴; a Class 10 truck turns on which "certain vehicles" are excluded, which waits on the draft legislation. Enactment and the final text govern.

Immediate expensing that exists today does not look like a route for a conventional boom truck. The regulation's $1,500,000 regime for private corporations and individuals covers only property available for use before 2024, or before 2025 for individuals⁹. Budget 2025's immediate-expensing list names manufacturing and processing equipment, clean energy equipment and zero-emission vehicles, among other assets, and the chapter does not mention trucks or cranes¹⁵.

Do not time a purchase on a proposal alone. If it is not enacted, a truck bought on its strength falls back to the rules above.

R 21 mWhat to ask your accountant

Bring the facts that decide the class; most are on paper you already have: the GVWR on the compliance label, for the 11,788 kg test¹; the build (a cargo deck specified to haul, or only the crane, and any excavating accessories); a rough split of hours lifting against hauling, and whose goods it carries; your line of business; whether the chassis and the crane were invoiced separately; and when you acquired it, when it was available for use, and who owned it before.

The questions

1. Which class does this truck go in, and on what reading of paragraphs 10(a), 10(h) and 16(g), and Class 8?
2. Are the crane and the chassis one property or two?
3. Is it reaccelerated investment incentive property, and at what multiple for our dates?
4. If the Productivity Mega Deduction is enacted, does it reach this truck?
5. If the business leases instead, who claims CCA? See boom truck lease accounting.
6. As a GST/HST registrant, can we claim input tax credits on the tax paid on the purchase¹⁶?

A zero-emission truck changes the list. CRA has Class 54 and Class 55 for zero-emission vehicles that would otherwise be in Class 10 or Class 16², and the incentive's general rule does not apply to those classes⁸.

BoomTrucks.ca is an independent reference: we do not rent, sell or lease equipment. For the purchase itself, see buying a boom truck and what drives a boom truck's price, or request a quote; it only goes to a company with your consent.