An Offer You Can't Refuse

Let it be said that 2008 marks the birth of the highly efficient, automated and technically advanced metalforming industry of the next decade.

And let it be said that the next generation of metalforming leaders owe their careers in this incredibly satisfying and rewarding industry to the capital investments made in 2008.

Far-fetched you say? I say not, because, finally, Congress has thrown us a bone. One very big, once-in-a-lifetime bone. We know it as The Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act of 2008, which on a personal level will soon result in a nice fat rebate check in my mailbox, and in yours, too. But for businesses, what it amounts to is perhaps the biggest single act of Congress (at least in my lifetime) aimed at stimulating the manufacturing economy.

Look around your shop, and do the math. Put two and two together to identify at least one, if not two or three, pieces of equipment that sorely need to be replaced with newer state-of-the-art metalforming equipment—be it a new high-capacity feed line, wire-EDM machine, stamping press, transfer system, etc.

How the economic stimulus package works, according to information distributed by AMT—The Association for Manufacturing Technology, which urged Congress to pass the legislation, keys on two triggers: a 50-percent bonus depreciation for new capital expenditures made in 2008, so that investments are eligible for a first-year depreciation totaling half of the cost of the investment and then the remaining basis of the asset falls under the regular depreciation rules; and, a huge increase in the write off that small businesses can take for new equipment purchased in 2008.

Applying the 50-percent bonus depreciation means that a capital investment of $100,000 scores a first-year depreciation of $57,000, instead of just $14,000 under the old law.

And, the write-off increase for small businesses allows you to not only receive full benefits for expenses totaling $800,000, up from the previous cap of $510,000; it also lets businesses write off 2008 new-equipment purchases totaling $250,000, nearly twice the previous limit of $128,000.

These two new passes issued by Congress to machine-buying businesses sound too good to be true. But true they are, and they created a buzz around the METALFORM trade show in Birmingham, AL (April 1-3). In the next issue (June) of MetalForming, we’ll highlight some of the new equipment on display for visitors to the trade show—new presses, feed lines, transfer systems, robotic-welding systems, controls and electronics, and other goodies designed to optimize pressroom productivity, quality and safety.

In the meantime, remember that MetalForming also hosts the industry’s only online tradeshow, on its website at https://www.metalformingmagazine.com/. There you will find our Pressroom Technology Show on the Web, stocked with updated exhibitor booths organized into technology-specific pavilions: Presses, Automation, Coil Handling & Processing, Lubrication and—new this month—Pressroom Safety, a pavilion specifically for suppliers of safety equipment and services.

Don’t put yourself at a competitive disadvantage for the next several years by failing to take advantage of this huge new tax incentive to invest in your pressroom. And don’t waste time surfing all over the Internet, making slews of phone calls and flying all over the world in search of the latest and greatest pressroom technology. We have it all for you, with just a few keystrokes, at https://www.metalformingmagazine.com/.

Happy shopping.

Technologies: Management

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