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Among executives planning more capex, 70% expect most of it to come from accelerated projects, RSM survey finds
RSM's Harris Poll survey of 500 middle market executives found 59% raising capital investment over three years because of immediate expensing, and 70% of those said most of that money is projects moved earlier.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- The Harris Poll surveyed 500 senior executives at middle market companies with annual revenue between $30 million and $10 billion for RSM US LLP, online and by telephone from April 1 to April 23, 2026.
- Of executives familiar with the law, 51% expect a positive impact on future growth and 53% anticipate a positive effect on after-tax cash flow.
- Asked where OBBBA benefits would go, executives named eight uses scoring from capital investment at 89% down to hiring and M&A at 76% each.
Compiled by The InvestorSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- constraint Acceleration moves spending earlier without adding to the total, so the roughly 41% of all respondents describing a reschedule implies a thinner pipeline in the out years for equipment vendors and lenders reading 59% as new demand.
- decision With eight competing uses packed into a 13-point band, the choice between equipment, debt paydown and pay rises is still open at most of these companies, and it gets made deal by deal.
- cost Modelling bonus depreciation, domestic research expensing and interest deductibility as one interacting set falls on finance teams at companies with as little as $30 million in revenue.
Fifty-nine percent of the 500 executives said they will raise capital investment over the next three years because of the immediate expensing provisions for qualifying property [3], and 70% of that group said most of that spending will come from accelerating projects already under consideration [4]. About 41% of everyone surveyed is therefore describing a reschedule [1]. The share whose planned increase is mostly something other than acceleration comes to roughly 18% [2].
RSM's own summary says the 70% figure shows the law's potential to influence investment timing as much as overall spending levels [10]. What the timing shift is worth to a supplier or a lender depends on whether the accelerated project would have been funded two years later anyway.
The report frames the law as feeding decisions on capital investment, innovation, financing, workforce strategy, mergers and acquisitions and long-term growth planning [12]. Asked where OBBBA benefits would actually go, executives named capital investment (89%), balance sheet strengthening (87%), compensation and benefits (86%), innovation and R&D (84%), tax management (82%), investor returns (82%), hiring (76%) and M&A (76%) [5]. Eight uses inside a 13-point spread [3].
"The findings underscore that tax policy can influence business behavior by affecting the economics of investment decisions," said James Alex, principal and U.S. public policy and government affairs leader at RSM US LLP [6]. Alex also said: "The companies positioned to benefit most will be those that view these incentives as part of a long-term strategic agenda rather than a short-term tax planning exercise" [7].
RSM, an assurance, tax and consulting firm, commissioned the research [1]. The report concludes that companies need to integrate tax, financial and operational data to weigh the interplay among bonus depreciation, domestic research expensing and interest deductibility [8]. The middle market it surveyed runs from $30 million to $10 billion in annual revenue [2], a spread of more than 300 to 1 [4], so the 59% averages across companies whose tax positions have little in common.
On sentiment, 51% of executives familiar with the law expect a positive impact on future growth and 53% expect a positive effect on after-tax cash flow [9]. The published summary does not say what the other 49% expect [5]. For a law that lets qualifying property be expensed immediately, a bare majority expecting a cash flow benefit is a modest result, and it fits the timing story better than the growth story.
The innovation answers are what would change that view. Companies planning innovation investments said they are prioritising increased domestic R&D spending, expansion of internal R&D teams and acceleration of planned research projects [11]. Expanding internal R&D teams adds payroll. That cost stays on the books after the deduction has been taken. Fieldwork closed on April 23, 2026 [2].
What to watch
- Later quarterly Middle Market Business Index readings on whether capital investment intentions hold once the accelerated projects are booked.
- Whether the 76% who named M&A as a use for OBBBA benefits turns up in actual middle market deal counts.
- The four supporting articles in the report, for any breakdown of the 49% who do not expect a positive growth impact.