The billions of dollars they need to write off because of the subprime mortgage, credit that are in big problems that are out there.

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Note: the 50% bonus depreciation can be more valuable than the Sec. 179 write-off provision because the Sec. 179 deduction is limited to business taxable income with any excess carried forward, says Butler.

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And it will be cheaper for you because you can essentially take -- you can write off the business expenses of purchasing that oven this year a lot faster than you would have otherwise been able to do.

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In January, Rio Tinto was forced to write off a three-billion-dollar investment in coal in Mozambique, largely because of infrastructure problems.

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Sir Mervyn King said the other day it would be wrong for the Bank to write off the government debt it had bought as part of its quantitative easing policy, because that would be an act of fiscal policy - and an irresponsible one, at that.

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It can become potentially problematic because companies can get stuck with older inventory that won't sell, resulting in a write-off.

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