IT industry wins tax break

The Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act signed into law March 9 by President Bush, includes $43 billion in tax cuts to spur investment. It provides for accelerated depreciation of capital equipment, including IT assets, over three years. The act also extends unemployment benefits for up to 13 weeks. The measure passed the Senate 85 to 9 and the House 417 to 3.

Companies will be able to take a 30 percent write-off for a piece of equipment the first year after purchase, and take the current 20 percent deduction the following two years.

This allows buyers of IT to depreciate those assets more in line with the actual useful life of those investments, said Harris Miller, president of the Arlington, Va., Information Technology Association of America.