Letting the research and
development tax credit expire at the end of the year will put 120,000
hard-working Americans on the street and cost $45 million in economic activity
every day the credit isn’t in place, according to a just-released report. The report
by the trade group TechAmerica underscored the salient facts about the credit: It works.
With the unemployment rate at
more than 10 percent for the first time in decades, lawmakers need to ask
themselves if the want to put even more jobs and important projects at risk by
failing to act on the credit which expires on December 31.
“The realities of a global market
and America’s dulling competitive edge should dictate a stronger, permanent
incentive for research and development,” said TechAmerica President Phil Bond
in a statement on the report. “The President and many important members of Congress
support a permanent credit, but that support just has not translated into
action. Meanwhile, companies planning for next year are left to wonder if even
this, relatively modest, incentive will be there. We call upon the Congress: Do
not turn your back on American innovation – and the American economy – by
leaving this priority unaddressed.”
First enacted by Congress in 1981, the Credit has fostered
commercial R&D investment by American businesses of all sizes, helping to
bring new or enhanced products and services to market. The list of R&D
successes is nearly endless: energy-efficient appliances, new vaccines, faster
Internet and communications capabilities, safer transportation, and improved
national security, to name just a few. Innovative ideas become reality
when American companies are incentivized to make a strong commitment to invest
in themselves and in so doing, in our future national prosperity.
While the credit is a success, it is even more important now
as businesses prepare for the new year. Congress allowed the credit to expire
before, and each time it created problems for companies trying to make budget
projections and contributing to the U.S. sliding farther behind other nations
with better R&D tax policies. Congress needs to take action now, or risk
making the unemployment picture worse and prolonging our economic struggles.
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