The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 extends the $250,000 Code Section 179 expensing limit that was in effect for 2008 to 2009 and does apply to used machinery. The original provision: Section 179 deduction increased. For property placed in service during a tax year beginning in 2008, the limit for the Section 179 deduction to expense certain depreciable business property has been increased to $250,000. This limit will be reduced when the total cost of Section 179 property placed in service during the tax year exceeds $800,000.