The February 27, 2009 Employee Ownership Update is online and discusses the following:

• New Estimates of the Number of ESOPs and of Plan Assets and Participants
  
• NCEO/Beyster Institute Conference Case Study the Poster Company for New Stimulus Bill
  
• Stimulus Bill Provisions May Help Some ESOP Companies
  
• Center for Business Education Announces Employee Ownership Dissertation Award
  

The Update announces the Updated ESOP Statistics and discusses the tax provisions in the economic stimulus bill that may benefit ESOP companies:

• Enhanced depreciation: A 2008 law allowing 50% of qualifying property to be expensed in the first year of use is extended through 2009.
  
• Extension of enhanced small business expensing: Last year, Congress temporarily increased the amount that small businesses could write off for capital expenditures incurred in 2008 to $250,000 and increased the phase-out threshold for 2008 to $800,000. The new law extends these temporary increases for capital expenditures incurred in 2009.
  
• Expanded loss carryback of net operating losses for small businesses: Net operating losses incurred in 2008 or 2009 can be carried back for five years instead of two for businesses with gross receipts of $15 million or less.
  
• Cancellation off debt income recognition: Companies buying their own debt at a discount can recognize that income over 10 years for specified debt occurred between 2009 and 2010. This could be helpful to companies who are restructuring ESOP acquisition debt.
  
• S corporation holding period: The new law shortens the holding period of assets subject to the built-in gains tax from 10 years to 7 years for transactions in 2009 and 2010. ESOP companies that converted from C status to S status, but have a sale that occurs in these years, may be helped by this provision.
  

It also notes how the NCEO/Beyster Institute Conference Case Study, Namaste Solar, was impacted by the economic stimulus bill.

We have been keeping you posted on New Approaches to Spread Employee Ownership. The Update discusses a $1,500 award (2009 Dissertation Proposal Award) for a dissertation on shared capitalism through employee ownership:

The Center for Business Education at the Aspen Institute (Aspen CBE), in partnership with the Foundation for Enterprise Development and the Employee Ownership Foundation, is pleased to announce the launch of a new, annual award for promising dissertation research at this pivotal point in history when the corporation is being redefined: the Shared Capitalism through Employee Ownership Award. The purpose of this award is to identify innovative research in business or business-related disciplines that is concerned with the impact or effectiveness of shared capitalism and/or broad-based ownership strategies in combination with participative workplace practices. The recipient(s) will receive recognition at an awards ceremony hosted by the Aspen Institute to be held in New York City in the fall of 2009, introductions to professionals and/or professors in the winning students' fields of interest, and a stipend in the amount of $1500. No budgetary restrictions will be placed on the use of these funds.

Key Words: participative workforces; wealth creation through broad-based equity and profit sharing mechanisms; examinations of different varieties of shared capitalism in the context of the free enterprise economy; work practices and organizational structures; broad-based employee incentives and executive compensation; innovation-oriented and entrepreneurial models that address the broad sharing of rewards; shared capitalism; employee ownership.