Now that President Obama has officially signed the stimulus legislation, we’d all like to find out what specific benefits it will provide.  In this post, I’ll focus on the benefits to small businesses.  More courageous citizens have read through the entire legislation, and many have been talking here and there about the possible benefits.  Here’s what we could determine so far. 

Most of the information in this post comes from the New York Times’ article “The Stimulus Plan: How to Spend $787 Billion.”  When I started writing this post, I figured I’d have to parse through lots of articles and blogs to figure out what the benefits will be.  But, it looks like the NY Times already did most of the work.

The NY Times broke down the spending into many categories; the most relevant one is “tax cuts for businesses,” which you can find here.  I’ve picked out and listed what appear to be, generally, some of the most important benefits.  Oregon’s green/renewable energy business community is a sector that appears to have done quite well.  If you know more, or have other information, please fill me in.

1. “Expand tax incentives for renewable energy facilities

   Extend production tax credit for wind energy facilities through 2012 and other renewable energy facilities through 2013. Allow renewable facilities to claim investment tax credit instead of production tax credit. Remove cap on investment tax credit for small wind property. Allow renewable energy producers to claim a 30 percent cash grant from the Treasury Department in lieu of the 30 percent investment tax credit.

2. Extension of bonus depreciation

   Gives companies a 50 percent bonus deduction on capital investments made in 2008 that would normally be depreciated over many years. Businesses can choose to accelerate refunds of research and development credits and alternative minimum tax credits in lieu of bonus depreciation.

3. Incentive for advanced energy investment

   Establish a new 30 percent investment tax credit for manufacturers of advanced energy property, which may include technology for the production of renewable energy, energy storage, energy conservation, efficient transmission and distribution of electricity, and carbon capture and sequestration.

4. Expand net operating loss carry-back provision for small businesses

   Allow small businesses with annual receipts under $15 million to cut taxes by writing off current losses against profits earned in the past five years, instead of the usual two years.

5. Expand tax break for small business stock sales

   Allow small businesses to exclude up to 75 percent of the gain from the sale of some stock held for more than five years.

6. Incentive for alternative fuel pumps

   Increase tax credits for gas stations and other businesses that install non-hydrogen, alternative fuel pumps to 50 percent through 2010, for up to $50,000.

7. Allow more small business deductions

   Allow businesses to deduct up to $250,000 for capital investments made in 2009, with a total cap of $800,000. The limits were temporarily increased by Congress last year for investments made in 2008. Prior to that, small businesses could write-off $125,000 for capital expenditures, with a total cap of $500,000.”

Tags: benefits, small business, stimulus plan

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Corporate, Green Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.