Stimulus Package OK'd
By Lisa Cross, Business Editor -- graphic arts online, 4/1/2002
President Bush and Congress have enacted an economic stimulus package. The House voted 417 to three and the Senate voted 85 to nine to approve the measure, a scaled-down version of the original bill. This was the fourth economic package approved by the House, the first by the Senate.
A big plus for printing companies in the law is an expensing provisions that will allow to firms to write off 40% of equipment purchases in the first year and 57% in the first two years for equipment currently depreciated over a seven-year period, according to NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, Reston, Va. This compares with 14% in the first year and 39% in the first two years under current law.
The Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002 also includes:
- A 13-week extension of unemployment benefits to workers who lost their jobs after September 11; current benefits were slated to expire on March 12.
- A fixed 30-year treasury interest rate fix.
- A change in the net operating loss carryback period from two years to five.
|
