The President signed Public Law No. 114-113, which is the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016.
The Bill passed in the House on a vote of 316-113 and in the Senate on a vote of 65-33. It was then signed into law by the President.
The final law included a number of tax provisions that are important to ASA members:
- Extension and modification of research credit
- The research tax credit is made permanent (distributors may be able to use this when developing new ways to more efficiently engage in distribution, for example)
- This can be used as a credit against AMT in the case of eligible small busiensses
- Extension and modification of employer wage credit for employees who are active duty members of the uniformed services
- The termination provision has been struck, which makes this provision permanent
- The wage differential provision, which only applied to small businesses, will start to apply to all businesses in 2016
- Extension and modification of increased expensing limitations under section 179
- As expected, the $500,000 limit on expensing was made permanent
- An inflation adjustment was added to increase the section 179 expensing limit in increments of $10,000 to keep up with inflation
- Extension and modification of bonus depreciation
- This was extended generally for 2015 only
- An additional provision extends it for 2016-19 but only for certain software, water utility property and qualified improvement property
- This bonus depreciation may also apply to certain transportation property (tangible personal property used in the trade or business of transporting persons or property) that has a recovery period of at least 10 years
As always, consult with your tax advisor to see how these provisions may affect your business.