Permitted purpose
The activity must relate to developing or improving the function, performance, reliability, or quality of a business component.
R&D Tax Credits
Experienced guidance for complex R&D tax credit work.
Led by a founder with nearly a decade of R&D tax credit consulting and innovation incentives experience, Kaice Advisors helps businesses evaluate potentially qualifying research, analyze expenses, and prepare organized documentation.
Overview
What the R&D tax credit is designed to evaluate.
The U.S. research and development tax credit may be available when a business performs qualified research to develop or improve products, processes, software, techniques, formulas, or inventions. Eligibility depends on the facts and the applicable legal requirements.
Kaice Advisors brings practical consulting experience and scientific fluency to the technical activities behind a potential credit claim. The work is not a shortcut or a promise of qualification; it is a disciplined review of business components, research activities, and related expenses.
Clear guidance and personal attention shape the process, so technical teams, finance leaders, and tax return preparers can work from a shared record of the projects, uncertainties, experimentation, and expenses being considered.
Not every product development, engineering, software, manufacturing, or laboratory activity qualifies. Credit eligibility and amounts depend on the company’s facts, documentation, and applicable law.
Potentially qualifying work
Activities often reviewed in an R&D credit study.
The following examples are not automatic qualifiers. They are common starting points for a careful facts-and-circumstances review.
Developing or improving products, prototypes, or technical designs
Designing, testing, or improving manufacturing processes
Developing internal or customer-facing software with technical uncertainty
Evaluating alternative materials, formulations, or performance characteristics
Resolving engineering, life science, or production uncertainties
Conducting iterative testing, modeling, simulation, or technical analysis
IRC Section 41
The four-part test for qualified research.
A qualified research activity generally must satisfy each part of the test. Kaice Advisors helps clients evaluate the connection between their technical work and these requirements.
Technological in nature
The activity must fundamentally rely on principles of the physical or biological sciences, engineering, or computer science.
Elimination of uncertainty
The work must be intended to discover information to eliminate uncertainty about capability, method, or design.
Process of experimentation
The business must evaluate alternatives through modeling, simulation, systematic trial and error, testing, or similar methods.
How we help
A structured study process built around technical facts.
The goal is to develop a supportable analysis that tax return preparers can use in connection with the client’s broader tax compliance work.
01
Identify business components
We work with stakeholders to understand the products, processes, software, or other business components under review.
02
Evaluate qualified research activities
We connect project facts to the four-part test and identify activities that may warrant further analysis.
03
Analyze qualified research expenses
We review potentially relevant wages, supplies, and contract research expenses and organize the calculation support.
04
Prepare documentation and deliverables
We prepare a study report, technical activity analysis, expense schedules, and credit-specific tax forms and supporting attachments for coordination with the tax return preparer.
Industries commonly reviewed
- Technology and software
- Life sciences and medical technology
- Manufacturing and process improvement
- Engineering and product design
- Other businesses with technical development activities
Working with your advisors
Kaice Advisors collaborates with CPAs, accountants, and other professional advisors so the R&D credit study fits into the client’s tax return process. The engagement is scoped around the agreed advisory work and does not assume tax return filing or IRS representation unless expressly arranged.
Have a technical project or client situation worth reviewing?
Start with a short conversation about the business, the projects involved, and whether an R&D credit study may be appropriate.