The Economic Stimulus package also offers incentives to spur business investment. The legislation would save businesses approximately $50 billion in near-term taxes through a temporary change to the tax code that will allow American businesses that buy new equipment this year to deduct an additional 50 percent of the cost of their investment in 2008. This will encourage businesses to expand and create new jobs now because buying equipment, software, and tangible property this year will dramatically lower their taxes.
The legislation also increases expensing for small businesses. This means that a business placing less than $800,000 of equipment into service this year would be able to immediately deduct up to $250,000 – up from $128,000 – of its investment in 2008.