Simmons Knife & Saw Has a Banner Year Thanks to the 2025 Tax Law

For Simmons Knife & Saw, among the greatest benefits of the 2025 tax law is one it hopes not to use for a long time.

Small business benefits: As an S corporation, the Glendale Heights, Illinois-based industrial saw-blade manufacturer will receive permanent relief from the estate tax if—or when—its proprietorship passes on to the next generation.

• “I have twin boys who are freshmen in college,” said Simmons Knife & Saw President and Owner Colin Murphy. “They might take one path and then, by the time they’re 30 years old, they might say, ‘You know what? Simmons looks like a pretty good place to come work,’ and maybe they’ll join me.”
• In the meantime, the company is making use of H.R. 1’s other small business provisions, including the now-permanent 20% pass-through deduction and permanent individual rates.
• “My wife and I own 100%—we’re each 50-50, so everything’s flowing through to our personal tax returns,” Murphy said.

An “enormous” change: Thanks to the new law, the manufacturer, which sells primarily to the foam fabrication, food processing and packaging industries, saw a major difference between its 2024 and 2025 tax bills.

• It was “enormous, hundreds of thousands of dollars’ [of] difference, which is real money,” Murphy told the NAM during a recent interview. “That’s not some accounting entry. It’s actually cash in the business.”

R&D: H.R. 1 also reinstated immediate research-and-development expensing, which allows manufacturers to fully deduct R&D expenses in the same year they were incurred.

• “We have [what may seem like] kind of a boring old industry—making saw blades—but we are constantly trying to innovate,” Murphy said. “We have a new product-development team that meets on a regular basis … And we’re trying different things.”

Full expensing: Simmons has also benefited from 100% accelerated depreciation, or full expensing, which H.R. 1 made permanent.

• “That provision is hugely beneficial,” Murphy continued. “Instead of having to wait for that tax benefit over five or 10 years, you’re getting it all in year one.”
• For example, Simmons will be able to expense its new equipment for manufacturing butcher blades, which it sells to the food industry.
• “That’s a great example of where we could take the bonus depreciation,” Murphy concluded. “It’s a very expensive piece of machinery, and we increased our capacity dramatically on that. … It allowed us to double or triple our capacity and make a better product at the same time.”

Learn more: Explore the NAM’s tax advocacy here, including its new “Manufacturing Tax Wins Across America” flipbook, featuring 50 success stories driven by the permanent pro-growth tax provisions in H.R. 1—one from every state, with Simmons Knife & Saw representing Illinois.