Accelerated depreciation of equipment
Businesses deduct the cost of equipment faster than it actually wears out.
JCT line: "Depreciation of equipment in excess of the alternative depreciation system", corporate ($34.2B) plus individual ($24.3B). A timing benefit: deductions taken earlier, not additional deductions.
Value is proportional to capital expenditure, which is concentrated among large capital-intensive firms. The benefit is a deferral, so it is worth most to entities with the tax capacity to use deductions immediately and the scale to keep reinvesting.
Structural reading
The clearest example on this list of a timing benefit that behaves like a permanent one. Accelerated depreciation does not create additional deductions; it moves them earlier. But a firm that keeps investing keeps rolling the deferral forward, so at steady state the benefit never reverses. The structural consequence is a standing tax preference for capital over labour: two firms with identical profits pay different amounts depending on how much equipment they buy, which is a choice the code rewards rather than a difference in what they produce.
Who gets it
The channels the benefit actually flows through, described by asset position, entity form and form of return. Never by named individuals.
Cost split by the concentration score. That score is a judgement rather than a published figure, so treat this as the scale of the split, not an audited allocation.
- Capital-intensive firms
The benefit scales directly with equipment spending, so it accrues in proportion to capital deployed rather than to employment, output or any measure of need.
- Firms with immediate tax capacity
Accelerating a deduction is only valuable against current taxable income. Profitable incumbents capture it now; loss-making entrants carry it forward at reduced value.
- Continuous reinvestment cycles
A firm that keeps buying equipment can roll the deferral forward indefinitely, converting a timing benefit into something closer to permanent.
Who pays
Taxpayers generally, and labour-intensive businesses, which face full rates while capital-intensive competitors defer.
This transfer follows a general pattern, asymmetric organisation, sustained expert attention, and scheduled expiry dates.
How rent-seeking works →Legislative history and accountability
Enacting statutes, major amendments, recorded votes with party breakdown, and live reform proposals.
Enabling legislation
- Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981P.L. 97-34Aug 13, 1981
Introduced the accelerated cost recovery system, decoupling tax depreciation from economic useful life.
Mixed coalitionEnacted by a Republican president with a Democratic House, passing with support from a bloc of the majority party alongside the minority. No separate roll call on this provision is recorded here. unverified
Major amendment
- Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017P.L. 115-97Dec 22, 2017
Allowed full immediate expensing of qualifying equipment, the most generous acceleration yet enacted, on a schedule that then phased down.
houseDec 20, 2017· Agreed to, 224-201Who voted which way: full roll callDemocratic0 yea189 nay0% yeaRepublican224 yea12 nay95% yeasenateDec 20, 2017· Agreed to, 51-48Who voted which way: full roll callDemocratic0 yea46 nay0% yeaRepublican51 yea0 nay100% yeaIndependent / other0 yea2 nay0% yea
Sources and data freshness
Published within the last year. Figures marked unverified are seed estimates that have not been reconciled line-by-line against the primary source document. See the methodology for how each score is constructed.
Cite this figure
JCT, Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2025-2029 (JCX-45-25), Table 1, published Dec 3, 2025. FY2025 estimate for "Accelerated depreciation of equipment": $58,500,000,000. https://www.jct.gov/publications/2025/jcx-45-25/ Via RentSeek, https://rentseek.bothand.tech/transfer/accelerated-depreciation
The primary document is cited first on purpose. Send your reader to the source table rather than to this site, which is a finding aid and not the authority for any figure on it.