On December 31, 2013, 57 provisions in the federal tax law expired. Many had expired before and been renewed. While there was discussion in the congressional tax committees since at least April 2014, as well as votes, no consensus was reached until early December. The House passed the bill – H.R. 5771, the Tax Increase Prevention Act, on December 3 by 378-46. On December 16, the Senate passed it by a vote of 76-16. On December 19, President Obama signed the bill. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the cost of H.R. 5771 for one year as about $81 billion, but only $42 billion for ten years (because some of the items, such as bonus depreciation involved timing of deductions).

The extension means, for example, that if a business purchased new equipment in the first 50 weeks of 2014 not expecting to be able to claim 50% bonus depreciation on it (because Read More