WASHINGTON (Feb. 17, 2015) — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 636, “America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2015.”
The legislation is designed to make certain expensing provisions of the Tax Code permanent.
The House approved the bill Feb. 13, four days after it was reported favorably by the Ways and Means Committee. The final vote tally in the House was not immediately available.
H.R. 636 makes permanent the $500,000 expensing allowance for depreciable business property, allowing small businesses to write off 100 percent of that amount in the year the purchases were made.
It also makes permanent the threshold amount a business can invest in equipment in a calendar year to $2 million.
Because Congress only extended these thresholds to 2014, they are set to revert to $25,000 and $200,000 in 2015 and beyond, the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) said in its newsletter. H.R. 636 also would index the $500,000 and $2 million figures for inflation, beginning in 2016, SEMA said.
House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., expressed pleasure at the bill's passage.
“Small businesses need more certainty to grow, and this bill will help them plan for the future,” Rep. Ryan said. “We still have a long way to go, but I see this as a down payment on a simpler, flatter, fairer tax code.”