R&D Tax Credit Calculator

A company must demonstrate it has attempted to eliminate uncertainty about the development or improvement of a business component. Uncertainty exists if the information available to the company doesn’t establish the capability or method for developing or improving the business component, or the appropriate design of the business component. Many companies are confident in their ability to achieve technical objectives or have an established method for finding solutions, but the design is seldom established at the project’s onset.

A company must demonstrate—through modeling, simulation, systematic trial and error, or other methods—that it has evaluated one or more alternatives for achieving the desired result. Some activities naturally follow an iterative trial and error process. For example, engineering, software development, or clinical research activities all rely on a process that can evaluate one or more alternatives. The definition is also broad enough to apply to many other types of activities.

The process of experimentation must rely on the hard sciences, such as engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, or computer science. It’s important to note companies aren’t required to exceed, expand or refine existing scientific principles.