The Ohio 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.
Program flags on this entry
- Tax base
- commercial activity
- Credit for TY2026
- Current credit Yes. Our rules registry carries a current Ohio research credit for tax year 2026.
- Structure
- Incremental: the credit applies to qualified research expenses above a state base amount
- Credit rate
- 7% of qualified research expenses above the base amount
- Base method
- The base amount is the formula Ohio's own statute prescribes, not the federal §41(c) fixed-base computation. The registry carries that formula and the preparer notes that go with it; both are set out below.
- Carryforward
- 7 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
- None recorded in the registry
- Statute
- Ohio Rev. Code §5751.51 (credit against the commercial activity tax)
How the Ohio credit is computed
The Ohio 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 7%.
The base amount is the formula Ohio's own statute prescribes, not the federal §41(c) fixed-base computation. The registry carries that formula and the preparer notes that go with it; both are set out below.
Unused credit carries forward 7 years. Refundability: not determined in our registry, so the study confirms it against the statute rather than asserting it here.
Ricerca computes the Ohio 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 Ohio 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 Ohio entry above to the Ohio share of that base, and file it on the state return.
What the registry tells the preparer
These notes travel with the Ohio entry inside the platform and are reproduced here verbatim, including the registry's own emphasis. They are written for the person signing the return, which is exactly why they belong on a page about the credit.
- The Ohio R&D credit is claimed against the Commercial Activity Tax (CAT), not the income/franchise tax: 7% of the excess of Ohio QRE over the average Ohio QRE for the 3 preceding calendar years (ORC 5751.51); unused credit carries forward 7 years. Prior-3-year Ohio QRE history must be substantiated to support the base.
Sources
The citations below are carried verbatim on the Ohio registry entry. They are what the study cites, and what a reviewer can check.
- Statute
- Ohio Rev. Code §5751.51 (credit against the commercial activity tax)
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.