US R&D tax credit: SOCMA to Me

SOCMA calls for greater urgency on US R&D tax credit.

SOCMA CEO predicts reintroduction of rejected permanent R&D tax credit plan and urges Congress to act “sooner rather than later” to support US manufacturers.

Socma believes the making the tax credit permanent will restore certainty to the R&D funding area and will spur innovation. The bill was temporarily derailed in political manuevering around a rider bill to stimulate small businesses.  It is not dead but delayed.

SOCMA CEO Lawrence Sloan told in-pharmatechnologist that rejection of the bill “[is] not so much a setback as it is not a step forward. There's uncertainty as to how the R&D tax credit is to be funded and we're concerned that offsetting revenue collections would negatively impact chemical manufacturers.”  Tax incentives help companies with their bottom lines and encourage them to innovate.

I think passage of this bil would be a good policy move to support continued competitive leadership for the US pharma and biotech industry.

Posted by Bruce Lehr September 20th 2010.

Comments

[Jeffrey Feingold]

R&D Studies vs R&D Software
R&D Software can be a helpful tool, but, ultimately, a company still needs to compile a thoroughly-documented study if they are going to be positioned to support R&D credit claims in the event of an audit. The process of identifying qualified R&D activities, of determining applicable percentages of staff time, of determining certain aspects of the required calculations (e.g., related to fixed base pc) cannot be fully automated. For large corporations with significant six figure - seven figure credits, the additional cost of R&D software can be warranted. For small to mid-sized companies, the software, as an additional tool to go along with the R&D study process, generally is not warranted.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey Feingold
Founder and Managing Partner
Tax Point Advisors - "We don't just do
R&D credits ... we do them right!"
www.taxpointadvisors.com
CA, FL, MA, NY, OH,TX
(800) 260-4138
info@taxpointadvisors.com

[bigredbruce]

From the Patent Docs blog, the IPO is another organization that supports the Patent Reform Act of 2010.
http://www.patentdocs.org/2010/09/ipo-writes-in-support-of-patent-reform-act-of-2010.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentDocs+%28Patent+Docs%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

[Brian Lefever]

There are two significant issues with the existing R&D Tax Credit regs. First, it’s a Tier 1 Issue, which means higher chance of audit. Second, the IRS requires contemporaneous documentation to support a claim for Credit. To address these issues, we built Titan Armor – a low-cost software solution that meets the IRS requirements for the R&D Tax Credit. We work with CPA firms to enhance their client services. You can get more information at www.titanarmor.com.