For most of 2025, tariff-anxious manufacturers got the same advice: lease, don't buy. Leasing meant flexibility if trade policy shifted again.
It also kept capital off the balance sheet during an unpredictable stretch. That advice is now working against the manufacturers who followed it.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act permanently reinstated 100% bonus depreciation. It applies to qualified equipment placed in service after January 19, 2025. The IRS confirmed the framework in Notice 2026-11 this January.
That's true whether the equipment is bought outright or financed through a bridge loan. The full purchase price is deductible in year one. For a manufacturer leasing the same equipment, none of that deduction exists.
The tax code just made owning equipment meaningfully cheaper than renting it. That's permanent now, not a pandemic-era provision that phases back out.
What Actually Changed
Bonus depreciation isn't new. What's new is that it's no longer temporary. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act put 100% bonus depreciation on a phase-down schedule.
That schedule was set to hit 0% by 2027. That's exactly why leasing looked attractive as owning's tax benefit kept shrinking. The OBBBA reversed the phase-down and made full expensing permanent.
That single change removes the main tax argument for leasing over buying.
Why the Leasing Advice Made Sense Before
The case for leasing during a tariff spike was never really about tax. It was about avoiding a large commitment while prices and trade rules moved. It was also about keeping the option to walk away if an asset became obsolete.
Those operational reasons haven't disappeared. But the calculus shifts once ownership gets a deduction a lease can't match. A lessor typically claims the depreciation, not the lessee.
Only a fraction of that value passes through in the lease rate, if any.
Run the Actual Numbers
The math depends heavily on the manufacturer's tax rate and financing cost. It also depends on how long it plans to keep the asset.
A company financing equipment through a bridge loan pays interest on the loan. But it claims the full depreciation benefit against its tax bill in year one. It also keeps the asset's residual value.
Take a $500,000 CNC purchase financed at 15% annualized for 90 days. The bridge carry cost runs about $18,750. At a 21% tax rate, that purchase becomes a $105,000 deduction in year one.
The deduction alone covers the carry cost more than five times over. That math holds even before the equipment starts generating revenue.
Where Leasing Still Wins
None of this makes leasing wrong across the board. A manufacturer with thin or negative taxable income has no tax bill to offset.
The bonus depreciation benefit is worth less to them than to a profitable operator. Fast-turnover equipment is different.
When next year's model matters more than this year's deduction, leasing still wins. A company unsure a product line survives 18 months shouldn't buy into a fixed asset. Not regardless of the tax math.
The real shift is this: buying now clears a bar it missed two years ago. That's true whether it's financed through a bridge facility, an equipment note, or cash. It clears for a much wider set of manufacturers.
Kentucky manufacturers should run this math with a state-specific asterisk. Kentucky does not conform to federal bonus depreciation. The state return still uses standard MACRS.
The federal return gets the full deduction. The state benefit isn't there to double up on it.
This article reflects reporting and analysis as of August 2026. Figures cited are illustrative and sourced as noted.
Not tax or financial advice. Reshore Bridge is a lead generation service connecting operators with financing partners. Not a lender.