Let’s modernize and make permanent the R&D tax credit
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Kevin Brady, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced this week the American Research Competitiveness Act of 2014, which would simplify and strengthen the U.S. R&D tax credit.
“America is the world’s leading innovator, developing life-saving technologies, state-of-the-art computer systems, and breakthrough manufacturing products,” said the Texas Republican, “but we are losing ground to competitors around the world.” Further noting that the U.S. share of global research and development has fallen from 39 percent in 1999 to 31 percent in 2014, but that China’s increased fourfold during the same time period, Brady said, “We are in danger of China’s R&D spending surpassing the United States’ by 2022. That’s just not acceptable.”
Under Brady’s legislation, the R&D tax credit would apply equally to all companies that perform research and development in the United States. It is strengthened and modernized by increasing the alternative simplified credit rate to 20 percent from 14 percent, allowing companies to increase their current R&D spending, while attracting new R&D spending, which will help create new jobs.
“Other countries are moving ahead of us because they are offering stronger incentives to attract research and development and the good-paying jobs that go along with it. It is time we get back on the playing field by modernizing the American R&D tax credit and keeping American jobs and innovation here at home,” Brady concluded.
