2026 OBBBA Changes for Business Owners

Business owners have several major 2026 tax planning opportunities under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Here are some of the biggest items to watch:

✅ Permanent 100% bonus depreciation  

OBBBA provides a permanent 100% additional first-year depreciation deduction for qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025.

That creates a major planning opportunity for businesses investing in equipment, machinery, vehicles, certain production assets, and other qualifying property.

✅ New qualified production property deduction  

Businesses may elect a depreciation deduction of up to 100% of the unadjusted depreciable basis of qualified production property placed in service during the taxable year.

Qualified production property generally means nonresidential real property used as an integral part of a qualified production activity. A qualified production activity includes manufacturing, chemical production, agricultural production, or refining activity that results in substantial transformation of property into a qualified product.

This special allowance applies to qualified production property placed in service after July 4, 2025, and before January 1, 2031.

✅ Business interest expense changes under Section 163(j)  

For tax years beginning after December 31, 2024, OBBBA amended Section 163(j) to allow depreciation, amortization, and depletion to be added back when calculating adjusted taxable income.

For tax years beginning after December 31, 2025, OBBBA also clarifies that business interest expense subject to Section 163(j) includes certain interest incurred and capitalized during the tax year, except for interest capitalized under Sections 263(g) and 263A(f).

✅ Employer-provided childcare credit expansion  

For 2026, the employer-provided childcare tax credit maximum increases from $150,000 to $500,000, or $600,000 for an eligible small business.

✅ Third-party platform reporting and backup withholding  

Under the updated law, backup withholding for certain third-party network payments generally applies only when both thresholds are met in a calendar year:

• Total payments to a person are more than $20,000, and
• Total transactions are more than 200.

The takeaway: OBBBA makes capital expenditure timing, interest expense modeling, childcare benefit planning, and platform payment compliance key 2026 business tax planning topics.

Businesses should be reviewing 2026 asset purchases, placed-in-service dates, financing structures, employee benefit programs, and reporting procedures now.