The One Big Beautiful Bill Act reversed the forced five-year amortization of domestic R&D expenses that went into effect in 2022. Companies with under $31M in average annual gross receipts can now amend their 2022–2024 tax returns to reclaim previously amortized R&D expenditures as immediate deductions. For a SaaS company that spent $2M–$5M on domestic engineering annually, the recoverable amount can exceed six figures per year.
The catch: IRS rules on domestic versus foreign R&D remain strict. Offshore development costs still require 15-year amortization. The value of the amendment depends entirely on how precisely your ledger separates domestic from foreign engineering spend. Most companies have not done that analysis.
What the recovery actually looks like
The process has three parts. First, audit your engineering and product development ledger to maximize domestic classification and quantify your exact unamortized expenses by year. Second, model the amendment timeline. Which path yields faster capital depends on your tax position. Model both before filing. Third, if the refund is material and your near-term cash position is tight, use the quantified refund model to secure short-term bridge financing while you wait for the IRS check. A documented, filed amendment is a credible asset for that conversation.
What to do this week
Pull your 2022–2024 R&D expense schedules. Identify what percentage of engineering spend was domestic versus offshore. If the domestic number is significant and you have not already amended, you are leaving cash on the table. This is a one-week exercise. Your CFO quantifies the exposure; tax counsel files the amendment.
If your company had significant domestic R&D spend in 2022–2024, the amendment window is worth modeling before it closes. I can quantify the recovery in a week. Book a strategy call.