The Massachusetts entry, field by field
This is the registry entry our engine applies for tax year 2026, rendered field by field. Where a field is blank in the registry, the row says so rather than filling the gap.
- Credit for TY2026
- Current credit Yes. Our rules registry carries a current Massachusetts research credit for tax year 2026.
- Structure
- Incremental: the credit applies to qualified research expenses above a state base amount
- Credit rate
- 10% of qualified research expenses above the base amount
- Base method
- The state adopts the federal §41 base computation, applied to Massachusetts qualified research expenses.
- Statutory liability limitation
- M.G.L. c. 63 §38M: the credit may offset 100% of the first $25,000 of excise due plus 75% of the excise above $25,000. The limitation depends on Massachusetts excise liability, which is outside this study's data - the return preparer must apply it.
- Carryforward
- 15 years
- Carryback
- None recorded
- Refundable?
- Not determined in our registry - we confirm it in the study The registry treats an unverified "nonrefundable" as unknown rather than asserting it.
- State form
- Schedule RC
- Statute
- M.G.L. c. 63, §38M
How the Massachusetts credit is computed
The Massachusetts credit is incremental: it applies to the qualified research expenses that exceed a state base amount, not to the whole year's spending. The registry carries a rate of 10%.
The state adopts the federal §41 base computation, applied to Massachusetts qualified research expenses.
Unused credit carries forward 15 years. Refundability: not determined in our registry, so the study confirms it against the statute rather than asserting it here.
Ricerca computes the Massachusetts figure from the same substantiated expense base as the federal §41 credit, using the registry entry for the tax year claimed and applying the state's own qualification rules to it. Where the registry is silent on a point, the study says so and the position is resolved with the return preparer instead of being assumed.
Claiming it alongside the federal credit
The federal §41 credit comes first. It is computed from the qualified research expenses the study substantiates - wages for qualified services, supplies consumed in research, computer and cloud rental, and the allowable share of contract research - and it lands on Form 6765 with the return.
The Massachusetts credit is then computed from that same substantiated base, with the state's own rules applied on top: its rate, its base amount, its caps, and its own view of what counts. Where the work was physically performed matters: state credits generally reach the research done in the state, so the same employee can sit inside one state's base and outside another's.
That is why the allocation work is done once, at the expense level, with the state attribution recorded as it is built rather than reverse-engineered at filing time.
One base, two computations
- 1 Qualify the activities under the four-part test and total the year's QREs.
- 2 Compute the federal §41 credit and file it on Form 6765.
- 3 Apply the Massachusetts entry above to the Massachusetts share of that base, and file it on Schedule RC.
Sources
The citations below are carried verbatim on the Massachusetts registry entry. They are what the study cites, and what a reviewer can check.
- Statute
- M.G.L. c. 63, §38M
- Form
- Schedule RC
Registry entry version 2024.1, exported from services/study-api/app/engines/rules_engine.py (STATE_RULES_2024 + STATE_RULES_REGIME_OVERRIDES via RulesEngine.get_state_rules) on September 10, 2026. The registry is versioned per state and per tax year: the entry above governs TY2026, and a study for an earlier year is computed under that year's entry instead.