United States v. Davenport: When an R&D Study Written Years Later Couldn’t Prove Technical Uncertainty
United States v. Davenport: When an R&D Study Written Years Later Couldn’t Prove Technical Uncertainty If your only evidence of technical uncertainty was written by a consultant years after the project ended, will it hold up if the IRS pushes back? The litigation involved roughly half a million dollars in disputed R&D tax credits, making […]
Tax and Accounting Software Corp. v. United States: Why “New and Innovative” Wasn’t Enough to Win the R&D Tax Credit
Tax and Accounting Software Corp. v. United States: Why “New and Innovative” Wasn’t Enough to Win the R&D Tax Credit If your team built something genuinely new, something customers had never seen before in your market, does that alone earn the R&D tax credit? A Tenth Circuit case involving a small Oklahoma software company says […]
United Stationers v. United States: Why Customizing Purchased Software Fell Short of the R&D Tax Credit
United Stationers v. United States: Why Customizing Purchased Software Fell Short of the R&D Tax Credit Many companies assume that if they built something custom, wrote code nobody else has, spent real money on a project their team is proud of, it must qualify for the R&D tax credit. One of the more instructive cases […]
Tax Credits for Small Businesses: Your Complete Guide to the R&D Tax Credit
Tax Credits for Small Businesses: Your Complete Guide to the R&D Tax Credit Nobody starts a business because they love paying taxes. And yet, every year, thousands of small business owners hand over more money to the IRS than they legally have to, not out of generosity, but simply because they didn’t know about a […]
Geosyntec v. United States: When Contract Language Determines the R&D Tax Credit
Geosyntec v. United States: When Contract Language Determines the R&D Tax Credit Fairchild taught contractors what a winning “funded research” claim looks like. Geosyntec shows exactly what happens when your contract doesn’t measure up to it. If you’ve read our case study on Fairchild Industries v. United States, you’ll recognize the legal test at the […]
Leon Max v. Commissioner: Why a Generic R&D Tax Credit Study Couldn’t Survive Tax Court
Leon Max v. Commissioner: Why a Generic R&D Tax Credit Study Couldn’t Survive Tax Court A famous designer. A nine-step production process. An expert witness who admitted, under oath, that he never verified the facts in his own report. That’s how the credibility of an R&D tax credit claim begins to unravel before the court […]
United States v. McFerrin: A Legal Victory Didn’t Save the R&D Tax Credit Claim
United States v. McFerrin: A Legal Victory Didn’t Save the R&D Tax Credit Claim In 2003, a Texas chemical manufacturer amended its old tax returns and claimed a research credit worth $472,092. The IRS accidentally sent the refund with interest before anyone checked the math, then spent the next several years trying to get it […]
Your Startup Is Unprofitable. You Still Qualify for Up to $500K in R&D Credits.
Your Startup Is Unprofitable. You Still Qualify for Up to $500K in R&D Credits. Most startup founders assume the R&D tax credit is only useful once the company turns a profit. If you owe no income tax, what is there to offset? That assumption leaves real money on the table every single year. Thanks to […]
IRS Sues to Recover R&D Credits: The Quebe Case Warning
IRS Sues to Recover R&D Credits: The Quebe Case Warning Receiving an R&D tax credit refund feels like a win. But in United States of America v. Dennis Quebe (S.D. Ohio, 2019), the IRS did something most business owners don’t expect: it issued the refund, waited, then sued to recover every dollar plus interest. The […]
The Audio Technica Case: Why Your R&D Settlement Documents Must Say Exactly What You Mean
The Audio Technica Case: Why Your R&D Settlement Documents Must Say Exactly What You Mean Audio Technica U.S., Inc. manufactures high-end audio equipment. It claimed R&D tax credits for multiple tax years, presented over 6,000 pages of documentation at trial, convinced a unanimous jury that its research qualified and still ended up back in court […]