How your study is built

Your tax preparer and your leadership read the same file from the same place. See what each of them receives. Not a client yet? Start with a free assessment.

1. Blocking checks, section by section

   The review workbench partitions every check by status: what blocks issuing, what has to be answered, what passes. A study will not finalize while a blocker is open, and each determination cites the authority it rests on.

   • All eight §41(d)(4) exclusion screens, applied up front
   • Funded research and rights-and-risk analysis on contract work

   app.ricercacredit.com/studies/2024/review

   1 2

   1. 1 Callout 1: Checks that block finalization, counted across the study
   2. 2 Callout 2: Each determination cites the statute and regulations it rests on

2. Wages allocated person by person

   Every person in the claim carries their own qualified percentage, the basis recorded for it, and the wage figure that follows, so the wage line of the workpaper is a sum of decisions, not an estimate applied to a department.

   app.ricercacredit.com/studies/2024/employees

   

3. Delivery in three enforced steps

   Three steps in a fixed order: the final document is generated, the study is locked, then it is issued to you. The server enforces the order rather than a person remembering it, and nothing runs while a pre-issuance check is open.

   app.ricercacredit.com/studies/2024/outputs

   

The rules behind each screen are written up in the guide: the four-part test applied per component, which costs become qualified research expenses (including the statutory contract-research percentages), and what documentation an examiner actually asks to see.

Both methods, compared

The Regular Credit and the Alternative Simplified Credit are both computed so you can see the stronger result - with the §280C reduced-credit election considered in context.

§41(f) controlled groups

Related entities are aggregated as a single taxpayer, the group credit is allocated across members on QRE share, and a standalone controlled-group statement documents the determination.

Payroll-tax offset for startups

Qualified small businesses can elect under §41(h) to apply up to $500,000 per year of the credit against payroll taxes - computed and carried onto Form 8974.

State credits, same base

State R&D credits are computed from the same substantiated QRE base, with each state’s own qualification and exclusion rules applied - the benefit most studies leave behind.

§174A expensing position

Your domestic research expensing position under the new §174A is mapped alongside the credit - deduction and credit, captured together and consistently.

Prior years & amendments

Open prior years, base-period amounts, and amended-return posture are handled from the same books-and-records trail, so history and current-year positions stay consistent.

How the two methods differ, and what the §280C(c) election does to the net number, is explained in calculation methods. The startup cash path lives in the §41(h) payroll offset, the state layer in state R&D credits, and the deduction side in §174A expensing.