Deduction is part of the recently passes American Job Creation Act
U.S. engineering companies recently received a 9% income tax deduction with the final Congressional passage on Oct. 11 of the American Jobs Creation Act (H.R. 4520). President Bush is expected to sign the bill in to law, and the benefit is to be phased in over a six-year period.
According to ACEC President David Raymond, the deduction created by H.R. 4520 is primarily targeted toward manufacturing as a means to redress job loss in that sector. “The primary objective of this bill is to create jobs and stimulate economic expansions,” Raymond says. ACEC mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign to include engineering services and maintains that the final version of the bill should treat large and small businesses equally, a position that was adopted by House and Senate negotiators. “Every engineering firm, no matter what their size, is eligible for this tax cut,” Raymond says.