Obama plans business tax relief, spending

President Barack Obama wants to expand tax relief for businesses and boost federal spending on transportation systems to help spur the economy, and is expected this week to announce an expanded tax incentive to encourage business investment, according to Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources.

Obama also wants to permanently extend and expand a research-and-development tax credit for businesses, which would cost the government about $100 billion over a decade, and has called for $50 billion to fix roads, railways and runways and modernize the air-traffic control system.

"All of this will not only create jobs now, but will make our economy run better over the long haul," Obama said. "It's a plan that history tells us can and should attract bipartisan support."

Obama wants to let companies fully deduct the cost of purchasing equipment such as tractors, wind turbines, computers and solar panels. In 2008 and 2009, companies could deduct 50 percent of their costs using so-called bonus depreciation. The latest proposal would increase the tax break to 100 percent through the end of 2011 and would make it retroactive to Sept. 8, 2010, the official said. The bonus depreciation measure would cost $30 billion over 10 years. It and the proposed permanent extension of the research tax credit have garnered the support of the business community.

Obama also wants an "infrastructure bank" and requested money to rebuild 150,000 miles of roads, construct and maintain 4,000 miles of rail and overhaul 150 miles of runways.