J.K. Lasser's Small Business Taxes 2013: Your Complete Guide to a Better Bottom Line

Other Expensing Opportunities

In addition to first-year expensing, the tax law is peppered with provisions that let businesses expense certain types of expenditures instead of amortizing them or treating them simply as a capital cost. Some of these provisions have broad application, while many of them are limited to specific industries.

Film or Television Productions

Small production companies were able to take an immediate write-off of their costs in 2011. If extended, then the following information applies. You can elect to deduct up to $15 million in production costs of a qualified film or television production. A qualified production is one in which total costs do not exceed $15 million. However, under an exception, the dollar limit increases to $20 million for production costs incurred in certain economically depressed areas.

OTHER EXPENSING OPPORTUNITIES

• Acquired intangibles (later in this chapter)
• Business start-up costs (later in this chapter)
• Corporate organizational expenses (later in this chapter)
• Environmental cleanup costs (Chapter 10)
• EPA sulfur regulation costs (Chapter 10)
• Expenditures to remove architectural barriers to the elderly and the handicapped (Chapter 10)
• Fertilizer used by farmers (Chapter 20)
• Partnership organizational expenses (later in this chapter)
• Qualified disaster costs (later in this chapter)
• Reforestation expenses (Chapter 20)