I think you are probably right about a lot of people not needing/wanting an audit........

Seems to me....but maybe I am a little more sensitive to these things since it is what I primarily do......that there are more old wives' tales with respect to income taxes then any other area.

No reason for that to exist anymore with google and the internet-------- just google the question, and the right answer will likely jump out............but that assumes people want to read and understand the actual rule, as compared to what they FEEL the rule should say.

And.......the p-poor level of preparers, aka "tax people", out there just boggles my cork.

I get the periodic sanctions list from the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility------ and the crap that "preparers" do, and get sanctioned for, is amazing.

There was a big uproar in the "tax community" a while back because IRS was wanting every preparer to have to register, and put in a certain amount of continuing education hours each year, else they could not sign a return. 

Most did not want that............I did. 

I am required to get 40 hours a year to continue the CPA in practice license.........I choose to get all mine is taxation, whereas one can select many other non-tax areas--------- which is one reason I am not overly impressed when people indicate that "my CPA said it".  Lots of CPAs in the world, but only a small percentage live in the tax world.

All that BS said...............

In your situation, the bulletproof way to continue income over a long term, with the least tax consequences, is USUALLY the lease.

That lease can apply to a group of equipment, individual pieces of equipment, a combo thereof........just whatever one can imagine.

The only thing that will tube a lease agreement, and cause it to be "looked through" by IRS, and most likely be called an installment sale, would be NOT adhering to keeping the numbers on a fair market basis.

So.......you lease a tractor to Johnny.........lease term is five years........buyout at end of term at option of lessee at fair market value, or even a stipulated amount, or even a stipulated amount per year on a sliding basis........but the lease can be killed at any point upon mutual agreement..........amounts just have to be able to be shown to be "FMV", and if there is some question about the amounts, make damned sure there are computations and references supporting how the amounts were determined.

Johnny comes to you at end of second year........."I want to buy the tractor because I want to trade it".

So..........do it. 

Mutual agreement exists to kill the agreement with respect to the tractor....

...Johnny buys it at FMV (albeit on the low side 'cause Johnny is your wife's sister's son.......and you're still in the market for having fun in a dark bedroom)......

....Johnny takes legal title with tax basis equal to purchase price, and trades on a bigger and better one........which at 3.50 corn he really does not need, but believes he needs.

All of the above are straight forward, on-the-table transactions.

The tax structures are not confining, and should not be..........but people want to avoid jumping thru the hoops, and think the tax Code provides loopholes.......which it really does not, unless you can buy lobbyists to add a clause to some bill that favors only you.

That is what causes the problems..........not wanting to know the rules well enough to devise a way to get what you want without getting reamed.  Learn the rules..........and therefore learn what they don't require.

Find some tax person that is willing to talk in terms of Code sections, so that you know that they know what they are doing, or at least are familiar enough with the Code that they can perform basic research.

Ask them what they keep near them for reference materials------- I have used the US Master Tax Guide, by CCH, since the late 60s.  That publication provides an excellent summary of the Code sections, with references that can be followed.......and that is not the only available publication that does that.    (I worked as an intern in the Cedar Rapids, IA office of a multinational CPA firm while I was in college.  Tax partner there would NEVER answer a tax question from me until I could quote the contents of the pertinent sections from the USMTG.  Hard for me to keep from decking that short smartass, but that was probably one of the best teaching tools I have ever been subjected to.)

The sections of the Code that relate to your problem are......... 1245 for the depreciation, and 453(i) for the installment sales.

Takes deeper reading within those primary sections for any related party provisions.

Use your imagination, get a structure that appears to work economically, then align the tax code with it.