[martinpannier]

2 things are new:

- Before, you could only offset your corporate income taxes, so you couldn't claim the credit if you weren't profitable (because you wouldn't have corporate income taxes). Now, you can offset social security taxes, which are based on payroll. So more startups can now benefit from this credit.

- Gusto has rolled out an new tool that allows their customers to much more easily claim their R&D tax credit, taking on much of the grunt work.

Disclaimer (?): I'm a PM on Gusto's payroll team

[toomuchtodo]

There's something gross about being able to avoid social security contributions as a government provided business incentive. I get it wasn't a Gusto decision (and that they're just enabling claiming the benefit), but it's still unsettling.

[dragonwriter]

There's nothing wrong with it if the funds still get to the trust fund as a transfer from general revenue funds.

Now, I don't think that's actually what the policy change has done, but the problem isn't allowing firms to offset the tax.

[dzink]

Actually, it is the right kind of incentive. If you are doing innovative work - go hire more people, because your payroll will be lighter.

[toomuchtodo]

At the expense of shortchanging an already underfunded social program.

The right kind of incentive would be a grant, just like the earned income tax credit which comes out of the general fund.

It wasn't enough to get rid of pensions, stagnate wages, shift most income to the top 1%. Now we're going to fund innovation out of the piggy bank of the social program that keeps most elderly out of poverty.

That's my point. It's the wrong way to build a business incentive.

No offense intended to Gusto.

[martinpannier]

Credits like these don't necessarily affect the actual money flowing into social security—social security is just used as a "taxation basis" in this case. That being said, that is a hypothesis—I'd have to look at the precise funding plan.