R&D Tax Credits for Manufacturers and Job Shops
If your shop designs parts, builds tooling or fights with a process until it runs right, some of that work likely qualifies. We document it and your CPA files it.
We reply within one business day, Monday to Friday, US hours.
Often qualifies
Work that often qualifies
- Designing and programming toolpaths, fixtures and tooling for new or difficult parts
- First-article work and prototypes where tolerances or materials were uncertain
- Mold design and process development for new plastic parts
- Process changes to cut scrap, cycle time or cost
- Designing custom machines, instruments or automation
- Testing new materials, coatings or joining methods
Usually doesn't
What usually doesn't
- Repeat production runs of proven parts
- Routine inspection and QC of finished parts
- Customer-funded work where payment didn't depend on success and you kept no rights
Costs
Costs that count
Wages of machinists, programmers, engineers and supervisors for time on qualifying work; materials scrapped or consumed in trials and prototypes; 65% of US contractor costs for qualifying work.
Questions
Common questions
No. Machinists, programmers and shop leads often do qualifying work. What matters is the problem they solved and how.
Not automatically. Your customer owns the part design, but the way you learned to make it is yours. If you had to work out how to make the part and you carried the cost when early parts were scrap, that process development may qualify. We review your purchase orders and terms for this.
It makes the work harder, not impossible. We reconstruct time from schedules, job travelers, emails and interviews, and we'll tell you if the records are too thin.
Often, yes. Open years are generally 2023 onward. We confirm the exact deadlines with your CPA.
Find out in 15 minutes whether it's worth doing
Bring a rough idea of headcount and what your team worked on. We'll tell you whether there's a credit worth claiming and what the study involves.