Featured Services

Engineering Firms

 

Example Of Qualified Activities

 

• Design & development — new or improved structural, mechanical, electrical, or civil designs
   

• Prototyping — building and refining physical or digital prototypes
   

• Analysis & modeling — FEA, CFD, load calculations, or simulations for novel/uncertain configurations
   

• Testing & experimentation — prototype testing, alternative design comparisons
   

• Failure analysis — diagnosing failures and redesigning based on results
   

• New materials — developing or testing new material combinations for structural use
   

• Process improvement — new construction methods or engineering techniques
   

• Design automation — custom scripts, algorithms, or tools built for CAD/BIM workflows

 

 

Eligible Expenses 

 

• Wages — pay for employees who perform, supervise, or directly support R&D (engineers, PMs, drafters), based on the % of time spent on qualifying work
   

• Supplies — materials consumed in testing/prototyping (not capital equipment or overhead)
   

• Contract research — 65% of payments to outside consultants/labs doing R&D on the firm's behalf (if the firm retains rights and bears the risk)
   

• Cloud computing — hosting/compute costs for simulations, modeling, or software used directly in R&D (e.g., FEA/CFD)