The Small Business Administration in June began a focused effort to inform small businesses of the depreciation and expensing provisions included in the Economic Stimulus Act (ESA) of 2008.

The act has two key provisions for small businesses:

• For a business’s tax year that begins in 2008, the act raised expensing limits (Section 179) from $128,000 to $250,000 for assets acquired and placed in service in that year.

• For property acquired, placed and kept in service in calendar year 2008, a business may be able to write off 50 percent of their cost basis.

The SBA has assembled three tools for business use, available at http://www.sba.gov/stimulus/.

These tools include a fact sheet, an eight-minute online briefing created by the Office of Entrepreneurial Development, and a “Depreciation Calculator” which allows small businesses to obtain an estimate of their first year depreciation under the act. Also included is a link to the IRS, which has more information.