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This is my understanding as well. This whole issue seems rather… sensationalized.

For purposes of this section, any amount paid or incurred in connection with the development of any software shall be treated as a research or experimental expenditure.

I wonder what this section and any software means

It means before you may have had to justify whether software development qualified as R&E, now you don’t. It unambiguously qualifies, if you’re claiming it as R&E. And unlike before, R&E must now be amortized.

But AFAIK you don’t need to claim it as R&E. That everyone has to claim all software development as “research and experimental expenditure” seems completely unfounded and a misunderstanding.

I assume there were-are other benefits claiming software development as R&D/E - and that the vast majority of it probably shouldn’t.

Yup. Exactly. And from that perspective this is actually a good thing, because now you don’t have to worry about whether software development qualifies as R&E.

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