Tuesday, September 13, 2011

President Calls for Expensing for Plants and Equipment for 2012 as Component of Jobs Package

President Calls for Expensing for Plants and Equipment for 2012 as Component of Jobs Package

On September 8, President Obama unveiled a proposal calling for a 100% tax deduction for plants and equipment for 2012 as a key component of the Administration’s new $447 billion American Jobs Act. The proposal calls for a full deduction of qualified capital investments through December 31, 2012 and allows all firms-large and small-to take an immediate deduction on investment in new plants and equipment.

Under current law, business are generally allowed to immediately deduct 100% of the cost of qualified property placed in service in 2011, and take 50% "bonus depreciation" on the cost of property placed in service in 2012. The President's proposal would extend the 100% expensing provision through the end of 2012. For the 100% expensing provision, this proposal also extends the longer placed in service date for property placed in service before January 1, 2014 for certain longer-lived and transportation property. The 50% bonus depreciation provision is not changed, but would be subsumed by the 100% expensing proposal in 2012. The expensing proposal is estimated to cost $5 billion over a ten year budget window.

On September 12, the President announced his recommendations to pay for his jobs plan including proposals to: tax "carried interest" in investment partnerships as ordinary income, repeal certain oil and gas provisions, limit certain individual itemized deductions and exclusions to a 28% tax rate, and lengthen the depreciation schedule for general or corporate aircraft to seven years.

Notably, the President recommended that new bicameral, 12-member congressional Joint Select Committee on the Deficit (the “Supercommittee”), be charged with finding the necessary revenue to pay for this plan as well as finding an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction cuts over the next ten years (2012-2021).

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