BizSugar.com › Taxes › Small-Business Owners Await New Tax Breaks

WITH the economy in terrible shape, owners of small businesses could use a break. The tax code offers many to choose from, including some recent additions, and others may be on the way.

Businesses received a batch of concessions late last year, when several measures that expired in 2007 were extended to cover 2008. These include a 20% credit on research expenditure and a provision that allows businesses that lease office or other space to recover the costs of improvements over 15 years instead of 39.

A separate break, introduced as part of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, was a doubling, to $250,000, of the amount of equipment and other purchases that businesses could write off immediately, instead of a bit at a time through depreciation formulas.