Today, Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Martha McSally (R-AZ) introduced the CREATE JOBS Act (Cost Recovery and Expensing Acceleration to Transform the Economy and Jumpstart Opportunities for Businesses and Startups) that would make two significant changes to incentivize investment in the United States. The proposal would prevent scheduled changes that would worsen the tax treatment […]
Recent IRS data gives us insights into new capital expenditures made by both individuals and corporations in 2016. In total, the IRS estimates that individuals reported $347.1 billion in capital expenditures and corporations reported nearly $1 trillion of assets placed into service. An important takeaway from this data is that it sheds light on what […]
Key Findings Allowing companies to fully and immediately deduct investments in structures is one of the most cost-efficient ways lawmakers can stimulate investment, create jobs, and boost GDP during a post-pandemic recovery. Changes to depreciation schedules in the two pieces of major tax legislation in the 1980s influenced investment in real estate and have since […]
Wisconsin, like every state, is experiencing a great deal of economic uncertainty amid the COVID-19 pandemic. States will need to use caution as they make revenue and spending decisions amid the ongoing public health crisis, but tax policy can play a valuable role in a state’s economic recovery, and policymakers ought to give careful consideration […]
Last week, former Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released a set of economic proposals aimed at increasing investment in research & development (R&D) and “breakthrough” technology in energy. Biden should include canceling the upcoming amortization of R&D expenses in 2022, which would pair well with his plan and remove a headwind […]
Investment comes in a variety of forms—be it private or public investments ranging from rural broadband and 5G to health care infrastructure and innovation. But not all investment is equal in terms of its effects on productivity and economic growth. While the common perception tends to be that public infrastructure is more productive than private […]
What is cost recovery? Cost recovery is the way the tax code permits firms to recover (or deduct) the cost of making investments. It plays an important role in defining a firm’s taxable income and can impact investment decisions. If the tax code does not have a way for firms to fully recover their investment […]
As Tax Foundation president Scott Hodge wrote in a recent blog post, improving the tax treatment of residential investments is a good way to reduce construction costs and build more affordable housing. Under current law, when a company invests in building a new structure, it must deduct the cost of that investment over multiple decades. […]
Removing the tax code’s bias against long-term investment by implementing a neutral cost recovery system (NCRS) for structures and full expensing for other assets is estimated to increase economic growth and job creation. Using the Tax Foundation General Equilibrium Model, we estimate that permanent full expensing and neutral cost recovery for structures will add more […]
A recent Brookings Institution study points out that “even before the COVID-19 crisis, housing affordability and instability were serious problems.” The study outlines a number of goals and strategies for increasing the supply of affordable housing, including federal subsidies, low-cost loans, and grants. These may well be viable solutions, but what is missing are policies […]