Section 174 has nothing to do with "detaxing R&D". The US tax code already requires that self-classified R&D expenditures be treated as capital-expenditures, a

Section 174 has nothing to do with "detaxing R&D". The US tax code already requires that self-classified R&D expenditures be treated as capital-expenditures, and subject to a 5-15 year depreciation period. Section 174 requires that any and all software development costs be treated as R&D expenditures, and thus capitalized/amortized. The total tax paid at the end of the depreciation period will be the same, but the upfront tax in the first year of a given expenditure is now 5-15x higher (depending on where the work was done).