The “extenders act” passed by lawmakers in December 2015 is known officially as the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015.

In the “no tax hikes” part of the new law, you find retroactive to January 1, 2015, deductions for Section 179 expensing of up to $500,000 and 50 percent bonus depreciation. Most small businesses and professionals like both these deductions a lot and are very happy that the deductions are retroactive.

In Mind-Boggling Traps in Retroactively Passed Bonus Depreciation, you saw how failing to elect out of bonus depreciation gives you a phantom depreciation deduction and then can leave you paying tax on the bonus deduction you did not claim. This is serious trouble.

In this article, we explain how to fix the serious trouble of failing to claim bonus depreciation and how to claim a Section 179 expense deduction when you failed to claim it on your original tax return. ... Log in to view full article.