Lucy swears this time she is going to hold the football for Charlie Brown. She’s pulled it away at the last moment so many times as Charlie was about to kick it. Each time he’s fooled — landing on his back with a thump. The latest extension of the popular federal research tax credit got pulled out of a bill at the last moment just as Charlie, I mean, Congress was about to pass it. Of course, Lucy was holding a bigger political football this year — AMT reform.

Governmentally funded programs have spawned a significant amount of research in the private sector. During the 1980s, many companies enjoyed the benefits of federal programs such as the SBIR, STTR and BAA that placed the financial risk of private research on the federal government while assigning the intellectual rights to the private researcher. Much to the chagrin of the companies that benefited from these contracts, the government began shifting the financial risk to the contracted researcher. While this may make the money more risky, it generates other financial opportunities.

B. Anthony Billings article from The CPA Online Journal breaks down state research credits.