Bees and Bonus Depreciation: How to Get Creative With Your Taxes

If you want to save on your taxes, some of the most effective strategies sit well outside the usual playbook.

Less-conventional approaches are drawing new attention, tax advisers say, including unusual investments that can take advantage of upfront write-offs, alternative venues for sports betting and agricultural ventures ranging from orchards and farming equipment to beekeeping. Some strategies are newly gaining traction under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the sweeping tax-and-spending law enacted in 2025 under President Donald Trump.

“There’s been many a conversation since July on ‘OK, what does this mean for me, how can I use it in my business,’” said Duncan Campbell, a partner and individual tax leader at Baker Tilly.

Filers should tread carefully. The IRS remains vigilant despite cuts to its workforce and funding, and advisers caution that pushing boundaries can invite scrutiny.

Bonus Depreciation Is Back — With Benefits Beyond Jets

The 2025 tax-and-spending law restored bonus depreciation — which was set to phase out by 2027 — allowing taxpayers to deduct the full cost of certain capital assets used for business purposes rather than spreading the write-off over years. Much of the media attention has focused on how the move has spurred spending on items such as private jets, car washes and gas stations.

Read More: How to Turn the New Tax Breaks Into Real Savings

The new law permanently reinstated bonus depreciation at 100% and expanded the types of property that qualify, allowing the benefits to reach far wider. Rental car companies, mobile-home parks, apartment complexes and data centers built to support artificial intelligence all qualify, tax observers said. The tax break is even drawing interest to less obvious assets, such as digital billboards, said Gian Pazzia, chairman and chief strategy officer at tax-services firm KBKG.

Investment interest in companies that lease and finance equipment, from rail cars to medical technology, has also increased, said Leigh Lytle, president and CEO of the Equipment Leasing & Finance Association.

For qualifying property placed in service after January 19, 2025, 100% of an asset’s cost can be deducted upfront. Claiming the deduction is best handled with a seasoned tax professional, as the rules quickly grow complex, including eligibility determinations, interactions with other depreciation elections and the impact of states such as New York that do not conform to federal bonus depreciation rules.

“We’ve seen and looked at almost everything you could shake a stick at that could be bonus depreciable,” said Tom Bratkovich, chief investment officer at DCA Family Office, a California firm that works with ultra-high-net-worth families.

Prediction Markets Offer a Tax Play

Sports betting has exploded in popularity, with a growing share shifting from casinos and traditional sportsbooks to prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket. One possible reason? Wagers placed on prediction markets can receive more favorable tax treatment than conventional gambling.

Unlike gambling winnings, which are taxed as ordinary income, gains from prediction markets may, in some cases, qualify for lower long-term capital-gains rates. Losses are also treated more generously. They can be deducted even by taxpayers who don’t itemize, up to $3,000 a year, and carried forward to future tax years rather than being limited to the amount of winnings, as with gambling on traditional platforms. And for those losing money — the vast majority, according to most accounts — prediction markets might offer a way around the 2025 tax-and-spending law, which capped the deductibility of gambling losses at 90%.

There’s some ambiguity on this, though. The treatment hinges on how prediction-market activity is classified and reported, and the IRS hasn’t weighed in on that issue. Any claim for tax benefits also requires proper documentation from platforms, including Form 1099 disclosures, transaction histories and records establishing cost basis and holding periods.

The IRS could address the disparity between prediction markets and traditional gambling in the future. “It’s kind of bonkers that we’re talking about these two things and treating them differently,” said Nathan Goldman, an associate professor of accounting at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management.

Unlocking Agriculture Tax Breaks

Some tax breaks hinge less on income or investment size than where they are: How land is classified and used can open the door to agricultural activities that can exist in rural or even some suburban areas.

Qualifying uses can include Christmas tree farms, orchards, vineyards and beekeeping, depending on state rules. Beekeeping, in particular, qualifies as agriculture in many states and can apply to relatively small parcels. In Texas, for example, beekeepers with around six or more active colonies may receive agricultural-use property tax valuation and sales-tax exemptions on supplies used exclusively to produce agricultural products for sale, subject to production and prior-use standards.

On the income-tax side, these ventures may qualify for bonus depreciation on equipment and improvements. Permanent plantings, including Christmas trees and orchards, are depreciable. “Pretty much everything above the dirt is bonus-depreciable,” said Bratkovich.

In addition, provisions in the 2025 tax-and-spending law encouraged investments tied to rural qualified opportunity zones, which offer capital-gains tax advantages. That’s prompting investment in sustainable farming in rural areas, rural manufacturing facilities and affordable-housing projects, as well as data centers for AI, said Kevin Matz, a partner who focuses on tax planning at ArentFox Schiff LLP.

Beware the IRS

Hanging over all of these unconventional tax strategies is the possibility that the IRS might audit or challenge your return if it departs too far from the letter of what’s permitted. People trying to use retirement plans in Malta to shield income from taxes have gotten tripped up in the past, for example, and preservation easements on historic buildings that offer tax deductions have drawn IRS scrutiny.

Anyone undertaking an unusual strategy should keep good records and ensure they can substantiate asset valuations, business use and costs, said Andrew Weiner, counsel at Kostelanetz LLP.

IRS enforcement has eased because of the agency’s funding reductions and job cuts, though that won’t always be the case. “As quickly as things change from a year and half ago, that can swing the other way,” Weiner cautioned.

To contact the author of this story:
Michael Rapoport in Arlington at mrapoport15@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Megan Willett-Wei at mwillettwei@bloomberg.net

1. For bonus depreciation, eligible property generally means assets with IRS recovery periods of 20 years or less under the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS). That includes equipment, technology, some vehicles and certain building improvements, but not land or whole residential or commercial buildings.
2. Some states don’t fully conform to federal bonus depreciation rules, including California, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania, among others.
3. Taxes, of course, aren’t the only draw. Prediction markets are legal nationwide, while sports betting remains illegal in 12 states, including California and Texas.
4. The amount of colonies required varies by county. There are also land requirements and the primary goal should be for producing agricultural products for sale — selling the honey or wax, for example.

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