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A comment on Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev in the US (Section 174). Parent comment

Re:Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev ... by dgfitz on Monday June 09, 2025 @03:50PM (#44228658)
In my simple mind, if software has been "released" it is no longer R&D, and "bug fixes" (which should include continuous improvements such as your example) are not research.

I may be way, way wrong though.

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Re:Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev ... by jandrese on Monday June 09, 2025 @04:14PM (#44228919)
That seems too exploitable to pass muster in the court. If you release Beta 0.0.1 of your software after 2 months of development then spend the next 5 years getting it up to version 1.0 that's clearly a development effort not a maintenance effort.
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Re:Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev ... by tomrod on Monday June 09, 2025 @05:04PM (#44229458)
Is it?
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Re:Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev ... by shakna on Monday June 09, 2025 @05:19PM (#44229618)
> such as marketing and promotional activities, maintenance activities that do not give rise to upgrades and enhancements, distribution activities

If it leads to a new release, then its software dev. Meaning anything more than a minor patch is going to count.

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Re:Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev ... by hansvm on Monday June 09, 2025 @06:20PM (#44230175)
That's the reason we have courts, to cut through those gray areas.
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Re:Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev ... by andrewlgood on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @08:24AM (#44235946)
No. That is why you have auditors who must sign off on your financial books and records. There are fairly strict rules about capitalization of software development. If it is a meaningful number for your firm, then the auditors will review in detail.
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