You solve technical problems. Explore the credit potential.
Developing products, software, or processes? Explore whether the technical work behind those improvements could qualify for a research tax credit.
Start with your projects, technical challenges, and supporting records.
Project activities
Identify technical uncertainties and work to resolve them.
Qualified costs
Connect eligible expenses to the research performed.
Supporting evidence
Bring project documentation and financial records together.
Innovation starts with a question. So does your credit review.
The federal research credit focuses on qualifying activities and costs. Developing a product or improving a process does not, by itself, establish eligibility. The review examines the technical work and the evidence supporting it.
Start with examples of challenges your team faced: an uncertain design, a performance target, or a production problem. Describe the alternatives considered, tests performed, and what the team learned.
An R&D credit review connects that project history to the expenses and filing requirements for the relevant year. Form 6765 is used to calculate and claim the federal research credit. State incentives require a separate assessment.
Read the IRS research credit instructionsLook at the work—not just the industry label.
Each business component needs its own assessment. These are the core areas to discuss during a technical review.
A new or improved component
Describe the product, process, software, technique, or formula your work aimed to improve, including its intended function or performance.
Technical uncertainty
Explain what your team could not establish at the outset about capability, method, or design.
A process of experimentation
Show how the team evaluated alternatives through testing, modeling, prototyping, or other systematic work.
A technological foundation
Connect the work to engineering, computer science, or physical or biological sciences, rather than routine commercial changes.
Bring a project story and the records behind it.
A useful starting point is one or two projects your technical team can explain clearly. Pair the project history with the financial records available.
- Products, software, or processes developed or improved
- Technical challenges and alternatives evaluated
- People involved and the time spent on research
- Project funding, ownership rights, and work locations
Turn project detail into a documented review.
Bring your finance and technical teams into the same conversation.
Identify the projects
Discuss the business components, technical uncertainties, and experimentation involved.
Connect work and costs
Organize the technical evidence and expense records, including funding and contractor terms.
Assess the credit position
Review eligibility and calculation methods, then coordinate the appropriate filing steps with your tax adviser.
Questions before you begin?
Common questions about qualifying activities, calculations, and documentation.
Ask us a questionDo we need a laboratory or an R&D department?
A department name does not determine qualification. The assessment focuses on the actual technical activities, applicable requirements, and supporting evidence for each business component.
Does every development project qualify?
No. Routine changes, excluded activities, and work without a qualifying research basis may not qualify. Software and funded projects can require additional analysis.
Is the credit simply 14% of our development costs?
No. Under the alternative simplified credit method, the 14% rate generally applies to qualified research expenses above a defined base—not all development spending. Other calculation rules and elections can change the result.
What if a project did not succeed?
An unsuccessful outcome does not automatically rule a project out. The relevant questions concern what research was undertaken, whether it met the requirements, and how the activities and expenses are supported.
Can a business with little income tax liability benefit?
Certain qualified small businesses may elect to use part of a research credit against employer payroll taxes. Eligibility and election deadlines require a separate review; this option is not available to every business.
Put your technical work into the tax credit conversation.
Tell us what your team is building, the challenges involved, and the records you have available.