Government Contractor

The Challenge

The company had never pursued the R&D tax credit despite years of investment in secure architecture and technical innovation. Their government-funded projects created complexity around eligibility, particularly in determining where rights and risk were retained. Previous advisors had dismissed most of the work as ineligible, but leadership believed there was untapped potential.

Our Approach

We began by examining the company’s active and recent projects through the lens of IRS rules for government-funded R&D. Our team analyzed contracts to pinpoint where the firm retained ownership rights and bore financial risk, which is critical for eligibility.

From there, we:

• Identified engineering work involving technical uncertainty, secure architecture, and prototyping

• Captured contributions from cleared engineers, contractors, and infrastructure resources

• Included eligible cloud and security infrastructure directly supporting experimentation

• Prepared a fully documented claim package to meet IRS standards and withstand audit review

  
  

The Outcome

The company secured $130,000 in combined federal and DC R&D credits based on $2M in qualified expenses. The claim was fully substantiated, required minimal involvement from the delivery team, and was prepared to be audit-ready. The resulting benefit gave the company additional resources to invest in innovation while maintaining full compliance with security and contractual obligations.