Unlocking Tax Benefits: How OBBBA Enhances U.S. R&E Strategies

The realm of Research and Experimental (R&E) expenditures plays a pivotal role in fostering innovation and technological advancements across multiple sectors. Historically, the U.S. tax framework has leveraged these expenditures to propel innovation by enabling businesses to offset these costs against taxable income.

The enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) on July 4, 2025, heralds a significant shift in U.S. tax policies by reinstating the immediate deductibility of domestic R&E expenditures. This legislation effectively overturns the restrictive provisions instituted by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), with Section 174A of the Internal Revenue Code fortifying U.S.-based innovation incentives while enforcing strict capitalization norms for overseas R&E activities.

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Defining the Landscape of R&E Expenses – Commonly known as R&D (Research and Development) costs, R&E expenditures encompass costs related to product innovation and enhancement, notably including software development. Key costs include:

  • Wages for employees actively engaged in research endeavors.

  • Materials and supplies expended in research activities.

  • Expenditures for contractor-led third-party research services.

  • Overhead costs tied to facilities and equipment utilization, within R&E contexts, covering expenses like rent, utilities, and maintenance.

The IRS defines these expenses expansively to bolster a myriad of innovative pursuits.

Navigating R&E Expensing: A Historical Overview – Prior to the TCJA amendments effective for tax years post-December 31, 2021, entities enjoyed the flexibility of either fully deducting R&E costs in the year incurred under historic Section 174 or choosing to amortize them over a minimum of five years. This prerogative facilitated cash flow, highly beneficial for innovation-centric entities.

Effective from 2022, the TCJA necessitated capitalization of all R&E expenses, mandating a five-year domestic and 15-year foreign amortization approach, heavily impacting cash tax burdens, especially for nascent enterprises shouldering R&D costs without immediate revenue benefits.

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Revolutionizing R&E Expensing with OBBBA – Effective for tax years subsequent to December 31, 2024, the OBBBA radically reshapes the domestic R&E landscape.

Domestic versus Foreign R&E – The OBBBA differentiates R&E treatments based on research locales:

  • Domestic R&E Expenditures: The reinstated 100% immediate deductibility for these costs year of incurrence, restores beneficial pre-2022 conditions, incentivizing U.S.-based research. An option remains to capitalize and amortize over five years should taxpayers opt otherwise.

  • Foreign R&E Expenditures: The unchanged 15-year amortization for costs linked to overseas research persists, potentially prompting multinational corporations to reassess research locales for optimized tax benefits.

Accelerating Previously Amortized Expenses – The OBBBA introduces transition relief for R&E expenses capitalized between 2022 and 2024. Taxpayers can:

  • Opt for Full Expensing in 2025: Deduct the residual unamortized domestic R&E costs in the inaugural tax year starting after December 31, 2024.

  • Two-Year Amortization: Gradually deduct the unamortized balance over 2025 and 2026.

  • Maintain Five-Year Schedule: Continue with amortizing remaining expenses over the originally designated five-year timeline.

  • Enhanced Retroactive Expensing for Eligible Small Businesses: Businesses meeting the criteria (average annual gross receipts of $31 million or less over the preceding three years) can adopt full expensing retroactively for tax years post-December 31, 2021, by filing amended returns, claiming refunds for taxes previously remitted under outdated regulations.

Integration with Wider Tax Provisions – New R&E expensing statutes interact heavily with broader Tax Code elements, including net operating loss (NOL) considerations, bonus depreciation, business interest expense limitations, and international tax provisions for large enterprises. Effective tax strategy necessitates an integrative assessment encompassing these elements to uncover value-laden planning opportunities.

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Accounting Transition Simplification – The IRS categorized these transitional relief measures as automatic accounting method alterations, simplifying compliance. The option to recapture deductions offers significant liquidity relief, unwinding former capitalization conditions. Initial guidance, articulated in Rev Proc 2025-28, delineates the process for accounting method modifications by way of a return statement rather than an extensive Form 3115 filing.

We invite you to reach out to our office to explore strategic modeling options, forging an optimized path poised to navigate accompanying tax provisions like NOL statutes and interest rate deductions. 

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