You buy a $180,000 CBCT scanner in March. Your accountant tells you the federal return can deduct the whole thing this year, and that part is true. Then the Virginia return gets prepared and the deduction there is a fraction of the federal one.
Virginia changed its rules on February 20, 2026. This is the piece of the change that touches the most owners.
Virginia used to update its tax code automatically whenever the federal code changed. That is called rolling conformity. The 2026 General Assembly replaced it with a fixed date of December 31, 2025.
Virginia now generally follows the 2025 federal act (P.L. 119-21), with named exceptions. Three of the exceptions are about deducting things you buy: the increases to the Section 179 expensing limits, immediate expensing of qualified production property under Section 168(n), and immediate expensing of domestic research and experimental costs under Section 174A, including the retroactive provisions. Virginia also does not recognize bonus depreciation, and that position is long standing rather than new.
The size of the gap is worth stating plainly. On the federal return for tax years beginning in 2026, Section 179 lets you expense up to $2,560,000, reduced dollar for dollar once your purchases pass $4,090,000. On top of that, 100 percent bonus depreciation is back for property acquired and placed in service after January 19, 2025. On the Virginia return, neither of those applies at the federal amount. You recalculate depreciation under Virginia rules and add back the difference.
The deduction is not gone. It is slowed down. Federally, the whole cost reduces income now. In Virginia, you recover the same cost across the asset's normal life, a slice each year. The equipment still gets deducted. The state portion of the saving arrives over several years instead of in one filing.
That matters in one specific place: the year you buy. Owners who time a large purchase to a high income year get the federal benefit they expected and a smaller state benefit than the plan assumed. If the plan counted on both, the cash forecast is wrong.
Owners in the DC area often assume the state next door is friendlier here. It is not. Maryland caps Section 179 at $25,000, reduced dollar for dollar once purchases pass $200,000, and does not allow bonus depreciation. DC caps Section 179 at the lesser of $25,000 or the cost of the property, and allows no deduction for the special depreciation allowance under Section 168(k). All three say no to the full federal write off, and they say it in three different amounts. Virginia's version is the one that changed this year. A practice with an operatory in Arlington and a second location in Bethesda gets two different answers on the same scanner.
Three things to do before you sign for equipment. First, ask for the state number, not just the federal one. "What is my deduction?" has two answers, and the state answer is the one that shapes your cash next April. Second, run the purchase against both returns before year end rather than after, because placing an asset in service on December 28 versus January 4 moves the federal answer and the Virginia answer independently. Third, check whether the purchase was already assumed in your tax plan. If the plan counted a state saving that Virginia does not give, the plan needs a new number.
None of this is a reason to skip equipment you need. It is a reason to stop treating one deduction figure as the whole picture.
We work with practice owners and small business owners across Virginia, Maryland, and DC, which means one purchase and three sets of rules on the same set of books. If you have equipment coming this year, reach out through the contact page and we will run both numbers before you sign.
Sources: Virginia Department of Taxation, Tax Bulletin 26-1, Advancement of Virginia's Date of Conformity to the Internal Revenue Code (tax.virginia.gov). Virginia Department of Taxation, 2026 Legislative Summary (tax.virginia.gov). IRS, Instructions for Form 4562 and Publication 946 (irs.gov). Comptroller of Maryland, Form 500DM Decoupling Modification 2025 (marylandcomptroller.gov). Code of the District of Columbia, Section 47-1803.03 (code.dccouncil.gov).