The Small Software Business Alliance is an informal group of small software and technology business founders who are united to fix Section 174. Software development and other research and development expenses must be fully expensable.
Read our March 6, 2024 letter to Senate leadership, urging them to swiftly pass HR 7024, The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, which contains relief for domestic R&D expenses for 2022-2025. That letter was signed by 1,171 small software businesses in all 50 states.
Small businesses can't survive another year without being able to expense payroll
Due to new accounting rules that Congress never intended to take effect, as of 2022 software development and other activities the IRS considers R&D are no longer expensable. (Even if it's work on already-commercialized software and products!) Instead, those costs—salaries, servers, etc—must be spread out over many years. This is creating phantom profits and making companies' tax bills go up by over 400% in many cases. This is leading to layoffs and cutbacks in software development and R&D spending.
There's widespread bipartisan support for fixing R&D expensing, and the House has already passed a broader tax deal that includes a fix for domestic R&D expensing for 2022-2025. It passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support, with 350 Representatives voting in favor.
But passage in the Senate is going to be an uphill battle. So now it's time for everyone to contact their Senators and ask them to support HR 7024—exactly as the House passed it, without amendments.
You may have never contacted Congress before, and that's okay! We're here to help. Below you'll find scripts for what to say and how exactly to get in touch. Congressional staff are required to keep tallies of which issues constituents (i.e. people who live in their district or state) contact their office about and report those tallies to their boss and other staff, so your time is well-spent.
If Congressional staff receive the exact same text from 10 people, it only counts as one email—not 10. So add your own flavor to the template!