Step 01
Estimate
You answer a few questions and we return an estimated credit range. Nothing is owed.
R&D Tax Credit
Businesses that develop or improve products, software, processes, or technology can commonly recover 10–20% of qualifying R&D spend through federal & state tax credits.
Answer a few questions and see your estimate01 — Could your company qualify?
The tax credit can reward you for a surprisingly broad range of business activities. If your company is trying to make something better, faster, more reliable, or technically possible, it's worth taking a closer look. Most businesses that miss the credit miss it because they never thought of what they do as R&D.
Your business could qualify if
02 — How a study works
We work with your team to identify the qualifying activities, understand the underlying work, and determine which expenses are eligible.
Step 01
You answer a few questions and we return an estimated credit range. Nothing is owed.
Step 02
Our specialists work through your actual projects to establish which activities qualify.
Step 03
We identify the qualifying costs and compute the credit against the current tax code.
Step 04
We prepare audit-ready substantiation and hand the finished study to your own accountant.
What it costs
Looking at your estimated tax credit costs you nothing, and there is nothing to pay while you decide. If you decide to undergo a study to capture the credit, our fee is based on the scope of that study, but we cap it at 20% of your credit so that it never costs you more than it's worth.
Answer a few questions and see your estimateQuestions
The federal research credit is an incentive intended to encourage qualified research and experimentation performed in the United States. Businesses that meet the requirements may claim a credit based on certain qualified research expenses — such as wages for the people doing the work, supplies consumed in the process, and certain contract research.
It is a deliberate policy instrument, not a loophole. The government would rather the work happened here.
No. Qualifying research can include developing or improving products, software, processes, formulations, or techniques. What matters is whether the work involved technical uncertainty your team had to resolve through a process of experimentation — not whether the result was novel to the world.
Work that failed can still qualify. The credit is for the attempt, not only the outcome.
No. Qualifying activities occur across manufacturing, engineering, architecture, construction, food and beverage, agriculture, life sciences, specialty trades, and many other industries.
The question is what the work actually involved, not what the industry is called.
Depending on the circumstances, qualifying categories can include wages paid to employees performing or directly supporting the research, supplies consumed in the process, certain contract research costs, and certain cloud computing costs used in development.
The exact treatment depends on the applicable tax rules and the facts of the work. Identifying which of your costs qualify is a large part of what a study does.
The estimate costs nothing and carries no obligation.
If there is no credit, there is no fee. If a study proceeds and produces no credit, there is nothing to pay. Incentive Partner earns only when a credit is captured.
Your own accountant or tax preparer does. Incentive Partner performs the study and produces the substantiating documentation; your tax professional uses it to claim the credit on your return.
You do not need to change accountants to work with us. We work alongside a business's existing CPA firm as a matter of course, and we are glad to talk to them directly.
Nothing, unless you decide to continue. If the estimate suggests the credit is worth pursuing, you can start a study directly from the result and we take it from there.
If it does not, the estimate is yours to keep and there is nothing further to do.
Any figure produced by this page is an estimate based on the information you provide, not a determination of eligibility or a promise of a credit. Tax benefits depend on the facts and circumstances of each business and on the applicable federal and state rules. This page is for general informational purposes and is not tax, legal, or accounting advice.