But nobody’s forcing you to classify software developers as R&D.
The relevant paragraph from Section 174:
> (3) Software development
> 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.
Or is it "using software"?
A person typing an essay with a word processor in doing more work than many of the users tweaking no code software.
The nature of the tweak involved probably determines the classification of the effort, but for tax purposes and R&D expense amortization, it is a percentage of time basis.
If the executive tweaks the code once, the percentage is so small it won't count as far as anyone cares.
If 20% of the executive's time is tweaking the tool, then odds are the company cannot expense 20% of the executive's salary and instead must claim that portion as R&D over five years.
Back before 174, I worked for a company that did claim R&D but only for one of the projects I worked on. As such, I had to be careful filling out my timesheet because they wanted an accurate accounting of what was salary expense and what was R&D.
how about "business process mechanization"?
Have you seen who's leading the most powerful orgs these days?
Have you seen what's going on?
"business process mechanization" is a fair description of what we do and probably would be just fine, tax-wise
Classifying them as non R&D doesn’t help saving taxes again.