External-use SaaS
Sprint work toward new features, new architectures or new platform support. Engineering iteration is the qualifying activity; PM and design are partial-allocation work.
Industry — Software
Software R&D —
the fastest-growing credit category.
Custom software development is, in the eyes of the IRS, the cleanest possible form of qualifying research — measurable, time-tracked, version-controlled. The challenge isn't whether to claim, but how to document. We handle both.
Internal-use software
Custom internal tooling that meets the IRS's heightened bar (innovation, significant economic risk, non-commercial availability) qualifies. We document against that bar.
Embedded / firmware
Hardware-adjacent software — drivers, real-time control, signal processing — sits at the intersection of two qualifying programs. We claim against both R&D and Section 199 where applicable.
Game / interactive
Engine work, networking layers, AI behaviors and physics qualify. Cosmetic and content work generally doesn't. Studio teams routinely under-claim because their accountants can't draw the line.
Open source contributions
Engineering hours spent on internal forks of OSS to enable a product feature qualify. Hours on community contributions for ecosystem health usually don't.
DevOps & platform
Building observability, CI/CD, scalability and platform infrastructure to enable qualifying product work is itself qualifying. We trace the dependency chain.
Startups: the payroll-tax offset.
Pre-revenue or pre-income-tax startups can offset up to $250,000 per yearin payroll taxes against qualifying R&D — money back in the bank quarter over quarter, not at a future filing. We file with the substantiation that survives examination.