Senators Young, Hassan Lead Bipartisan Push to Expand R&D Tax Credit for Startups and Preserve Full R&D Deductions

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), both members of the Senate Finance Committee, led a bipartisan group of their colleagues in urging Senate leadership to expand the Research & Development (R&D) tax credit and ensure that businesses can fully deduct their R&D investments each year in any upcoming legislative package.

Senators Young and Hassan previously introduced a bill, the American Innovation and Jobs Act, which would expand the refundable R&D tax credit for small businesses and startups and ensure that companies can continue to fully deduct R&D investments each year. In August, Senators Young and Hassan and led bipartisan efforts to include a bipartisan provision in the potential Senate budget package on this, and now they are pushing for their bill to be a part of any upcoming legislative package.

“We write to urge you to support U.S. economic competitiveness and innovation in any upcoming legislative package by expanding the research and development tax credit for small businesses and preserving full and immediate expensing for R&D investments,” the Senators wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Part of the bipartisan group’s push is restoring companies’ ability to fully deduct R&D investments each year. “Unless Congress acts quickly to restore full and immediate expensing for R&D, this change will jeopardize high-paying American jobs and constrain domestic investment in strategically critical technologies,” the Senators wrote.

Senators Young and Hassan were joined by Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arz.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Jacky Rosen (D-N.V.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).

To read the Senators’ letter click here or see below:

Dear Leader Schumer and Leader McConnell:

We write to urge you to support U.S. economic competitiveness and innovation in any upcoming legislative package by expanding the research and development tax credit for small businesses and preserving full and immediate expensing for R&D investments.

Starting this year, innovative U.S. companies lost the ability to immediately write-off the full value of their investments in R&D. Unless Congress acts quickly to restore full and immediate expensing for R&D, this change will jeopardize high-paying American jobs and constrain domestic investment in strategically critical technologies. It is also crucial that Congress further promote U.S. competitiveness by strengthening the R&D tax credit claimed by innovative startups and small businesses across the country.

In August 2021, the Senate passed an amendment by voice vote to expand the R&D tax credit for small businesses and to preserve full and immediate R&D write-offs for U.S. innovators. We urge you to include similar provisions in any upcoming legislative package considered by Congress. Thank you for your attention to this important issue.