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A comment on Reduce your startup's payroll taxes through the new Federal R&D Tax Credit. Parent comment

Re:Reduce your startup's payroll taxes through the new Feder... by mozumder on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @05:40PM (#14649745)
Also, it's not necessarily a tech requirement. A restaurant developing a new menu as it tests out recipes is just as much R&D as anything else.

No idea why people think R&D needs to be cutting edge tech research...

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Re:Reduce your startup's payroll taxes through the new Feder... by gamblor956 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @07:21PM (#14650483)
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. The development of menu items can be a permissible R&D credit activity.

At the level of a national or regional restaurant chain, it would definitely qualify. The development of menu items for a large chain involves a significant amount of research and scientific experimentation to nail down ingredients, storage and cooking processes, etc., that meet certain financial metrics, nutritional requirements, regulatory requirements, etc.

For a one-location restaurant, or small chain, it would be a lot more difficult to qualify for R&D credits. You'd have to show that menu items were developed to meet specific predefined targets in ways that would not have been obvious without the research/experimentation activity. Flavor is an acceptable target if the flavor can be clearly defined.

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Re:Reduce your startup's payroll taxes through the new Feder... by cde-v on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @05:47PM (#14649801)
No... one of the requirements is "research which is undertaken for the purpose of discovering information which is technological in nature"
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Re:Reduce your startup's payroll taxes through the new Feder... by gamblor956 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @07:25PM (#14650506)
The R&D credit is not limited to research undertaken for technological discoveries. I'm still not sure where you're getting that idea from.
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Re:Reduce your startup's payroll taxes through the new Feder... by webmaven on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @06:21PM (#14650091)
Might a restaurant specializing in molecular gastronomy[0] devising new dishes qualify then?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy

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Re:Reduce your startup's payroll taxes through the new Feder... by gamblor956 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @07:56PM (#14650662)
Generally yes. The tricky part is documenting how they qualify for the R&D credit.
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Re:Reduce your startup's payroll taxes through the new Feder... by mozumder on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @06:43PM (#14650233)
Basically all food production is "technological in nature".
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