The Fabricator - Sample Issue

around washington | by Stephen Barlas, Contributing Writer
Tax expensing extension put on the shelf for now
Senate bill would extend Section 179 until end of 2010

The House previously had passed a simple minimum-wage increase without any tax provisions. House Democratic leaders said they would not go to conference with the Senate on the minimum-wage bill if the Senate insisted on including tax provisions. The U.S. Constitution places the responsibility for keeping tax bills moving forward on the shoulders of the House. Therefore, it looks like the small-business tax incentives in the Senate bill are moot for the moment.

But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has indicated he would consider a separate tax bill soon. As a result, the House and Senate likely will take up the issue a little later this year.

Over the years the amount small businesses can expense under Section 179 of the tax code has been increased from $25,000 to $100,000 to $112,000 through the end of 2009. The Senate bill extended it for another year, until the end of 2010.

Over the years the amount small businesses can
expense under Section 179 of the tax code has
been increased from $25,000 to $100,000 to
$112,000 through the end of 2009.

Stephen Barlas is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Va., and can be reached at sbarlas@verizon.net.

Small businesses have benefited from Section 179 expensing in recent years, but that could change in future years if Congress fails to extend the tax relief.

The Senate bill extending Section 179 expensing for an additional year has been put on the shelf for the moment. The Senate had included the provision in the minimum-wage bill that went to the Senate floor at the end of January. Bill sponsors included the small-business tax provisions in the bill to entice fence-sitting legislators to garner broader support for the bill, which called for increasing the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour.

New Era on

Trade Agreements

A new Democrat-controlled Congress means the administration of

President George W. Bush will face intense pressure to modify already-signed free-trade agreements (FTAs) with Peru and Colombia. Democrats want to include stronger labor requirements in the agreements, and those resulting changes then would be worked into a template that Congress and the White House would use for renewing “fast track” trade agreement authority, which expires June 30.

The Bush administration has relied on the fast track authority to get earlier trade agreements pushed through Congress without heavy opposition. The fast track authority forces both the House and Senate to either approve or disapprove a deal in a straight up-or-down vote. No amendments can be offered on either floor.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab was on Capitol Hill in late

January talking with Democrats and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, which has responsibility for approving trade agreements. Congressional and U.S. trade officials are now trying to rework the Peru and Colombia agreements. Democrats want the two FTAs to include language encouraging the countries to comply with International Labor Organization standards.

EPA Changes Some Oil Storage Regulations

If you store oil at your facility to use in operations, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just made life a little easier under its Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan program.

First, metalworkers—and everyone else—has until Oct. 31 to change their oil spill prevention plans to comply with new EPA guidelines published recently. In the past the EPA required all facilities to hire a professional engineer to write these plans. That can be costly, of course, and the EPA has decided that smaller operations can “self-certify” these amended plans due in October if the company meets certain criteria. Companies that would qualify have less than 10,000 gallons of oil on the premises, which probably covers a majority of manufacturing companies, and have had no single discharge exceeding 1,000 U.S. gallons or no two discharges exceeding 42 U.S. gallons within any 12-month period in the three years prior to the SPCC Plan certification date. ■