Senate passes Small Business Lending Bill

If all goes as expected, the President will sign the measure shortly after passage in the House.

This summary of a few of the provisions was provided by Craig J. Regelbrugge, vice president of government relations at ANLA.

 

* Increase of Section 179 expensing and expansion to certain real property

Under current law, taxpayers may elect to write off the costs of certain tangible personal property that is purchased for use in the active conduct of a trade or business in the year of acquisition, in lieu of recovering these costs over time through depreciation. For the taxable year beginning in 2010, taxpayers may write off up to $250,000 of these capital expenditures subject to a phase-out once these capital expenditures exceed $800,000. This bill would increase the thresholds to $500,000 and $2,000,000 for the taxable years beginning in 2010 and 2011. At the end of 2011, the amounts would revert to $25,000 and $200,000, respectively.

Within the temporary higher thresholds, the bill would allow taxpayers to expense up to $250,000 of the cost of qualified leasehold improvement property, qualified restaurant property, and qualified retail improvement property. At the end of 2011, the amounts revert to $25,000 and $200,000, respectively.

 

* Extension of bonus depreciation

Businesses are allowed to recover the cost of capital expenditures over time according to a depreciation schedule. Congress temporarily allowed businesses to recover the costs of certain capital expenditures made in 2008 and 2009 more quickly than under ordinary depreciation schedules by permitting those businesses to immediately write off 50 percent of the cost of depreciable property placed in service in those years. This bill extends the additional, first-year 50 percent depreciation for qualifying property purchased and placed in service in 2010.

 

* Increases in Small Business Administration loan limits

The bill increases 7(a) loan limits from $2 million to $5 million, 504 loans from $1.5 million to $5.5 million, and microloans from $35,000 to $50,000. It also increases the government guarantee on 7(a) loan limits, while providing the elimination of borrower fees on 7(a) and 504 loans through Dec. 31, 2010. It increases the 7(a) Express Loans from $300,000 to $1 million to increase working capital to small businesses. The package also includes an Intermediary Lending Pilot program, which allows the SBA to make direct loans to eligible nonprofit lending intermediaries, in turn allowing them to make loans to new or growing small businesses.

 

See the entire summary here.