When President Bush signed the stimulus package legislation into law on February 23, 2008, he presented a number of goodies to U.S. manufacturers.

The package includes two major business-related tax incentives that may help reduce the cost of investing in new equipment, as well as spark new orders from customers. One provision of the stimulus package increases the first-year depreciation of capital equipment purchased in 2008 from 20 percent of the purchase price to 50 percent.

Small businesses get a break in the form of larger tax write-offs that they can make on equipment bought in 2008.  This provision covers businesses that purchase less than $800,000 of capital assets in a year.

Like everyone else, manufacturing executives can look forward to receiving checks tied to the stimulus package.   Tax rebates of $600 will go to individuals who make $75,000 or less, and $1,200 to couples who make $150,000 or less.  After those income thresholds, recipients get five percent of however much their income exceeds the limit.

Other rebate checks that will be offered as part of the stimulus package include:

--Tax rebates of $300 for individuals and $600 for couples who make at least $3,000 from income and Social Security benefits.

--Each child in a household gets an extra $300 in the rebate program.

According to the IRS, more than 130 million American households will receive economic stimulus payments beginning in May. The only way to get a rebate check is to file a federal tax return for 2007.

For more information on stimulus package benefits for manufacturers, go to:

http://www.mfgx.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/2/15/The-2008-US-Economic-Stimulus-Package-amp-Manufacturing

Also worth checking--a datasheet on the stimulus package, from the National Association of Manufacturers and Deloitte Tax LLP, is available at:

http://www.nam.org/s_nam/bin.asp?CID=202845&DID=239993&DOC=FILE.PDF