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Can confirm, filed some “R&D” hours at a company some years back that did software development but nothing I’d call “R&D”. They straight-up told us it was a req

Can confirm, filed some “R&D” hours at a company some years back that did software development but nothing I’d call “R&D”. They straight-up told us it was a requirement for some tax benefit or other. Like they did have us do it only on non-client work, but… it was not really R&D the way anyone means that.

richbell 3y ago
My friend's company hires one of the big consulting firms every year to create a report of all their "innovative" research and development. It's both hilarious and disheartening how much of a tax grift it is.
lttlrck 3y ago
Same. R&D included anything that wasn't not finished or had a roadmap that extended beyond the end of the year. In other words: unproven. If you squint that is R&D.
eru 3y ago
The D in R&D literally stands for development. So 'software development' would fit.
- Jensson 3y ago
  Right, software development, but not software maintenance. The issue is with companies filing maintenance under development, since both of those has the same "Software Engineer" title. In other industries there is usually a very clear separation between development and maintenance.
  - eru 3y ago
    Well, software doesn't need any traditional maintenance. It doesn't wear out. Any maintenance is new development.
- rightbyte 3y ago
  It is research and development. Not 'or', though. I mean I work in a RnD dep. now and it honestly is some R but like 2% of my time.
  - eru 3y ago
    Are you suggesting that a company that only does Research but no development (eg because they are selling the patents afterwards or so), should not be classified as doing R&D? I took R&D as the bucket that we put both research and development into.
- PeterStuer 3y ago
  What is R, D or non of the above is a spectrum. Public funding and tax favoring regimes in the EU mostly use the TRL framework for classification. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_readiness_level https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_readiness_level

richbell 3y ago

My friend's company hires one of the big consulting firms every year to create a report of all their "innovative" research and development. It's both hilarious and disheartening how much of a tax grift it is.

lttlrck 3y ago

Same. R&D included anything that wasn't not finished or had a roadmap that extended beyond the end of the year. In other words: unproven. If you squint that is R&D.

eru 3y ago

The D in R&D literally stands for development. So 'software development' would fit.

Jensson 3y ago
Right, software development, but not software maintenance. The issue is with companies filing maintenance under development, since both of those has the same "Software Engineer" title. In other industries there is usually a very clear separation between development and maintenance.
- eru 3y ago
  Well, software doesn't need any traditional maintenance. It doesn't wear out. Any maintenance is new development.
rightbyte 3y ago
It is research and development. Not 'or', though. I mean I work in a RnD dep. now and it honestly is some R but like 2% of my time.
- eru 3y ago
  Are you suggesting that a company that only does Research but no development (eg because they are selling the patents afterwards or so), should not be classified as doing R&D? I took R&D as the bucket that we put both research and development into.
PeterStuer 3y ago
What is R, D or non of the above is a spectrum. Public funding and tax favoring regimes in the EU mostly use the TRL framework for classification. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_readiness_level https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_readiness_level