Frequently Asked Questions

Eligibility depends on the facts of the activity, not the company label. For each business component, the work must satisfy the Section 41 requirements, including a process of experimentation. Software can be a business component, but routine implementation, certain internal-use software, funded research, work outside the United States, and work after commercial production can be excluded. A qualified CPA or tax attorney should review the facts before a claim is filed.

Possibly. Entity status alone does not establish eligibility. A one-person S-corporation may have relevant wage costs when it actually pays supported W-2 officer wages for qualified services. Owner draws, distributions, unpaid work, hypothetical salary, and side-project activity do not create a wage basis. Some qualified small businesses may elect to apply a portion of the credit against payroll taxes, subject to gross-receipts, timing, aggregation, and filing rules. A qualified professional should review the activity and actual costs.

Every activity claimed for the R&D credit must satisfy all four criteria defined in IRC Section 41 and the Form 6765 instructions:

1. Permitted Purpose: The activity must intend to create or improve a product's function, performance, reliability, or quality. 2. Technological Uncertainty: There must be uncertainty about capability, method, or design that cannot be resolved by existing knowledge. 3. Process of Experimentation: The work must involve evaluating alternatives through modeling, simulation, systematic trial and error, or other methods. 4. Technological in Nature: The activity must rely on principles of engineering, computer science, or physical/biological sciences.

All four must be met. Routine fixes, cosmetic changes, or established deployment work may fall outside the test when they do not involve technical uncertainty and a process of experimentation.

The tool used is not a shortcut to eligibility. The relevant question is whether the taxpayer's activity satisfies the Section 41 requirements for the specific business component. AI-assisted records may be useful context, but they should be reviewed alongside the underlying work, alternatives evaluated, and other contemporaneous evidence. QuarryFi keeps final classification and filing judgment with the customer and their tax professional.

The IRS requires taxpayers to "retain records in a sufficiently usable form and detail to substantiate that the expenditures claimed are eligible for the credit." Useful support can include timestamped activity records, project context describing the uncertainty and alternatives evaluated, reviewed time allocations, and expense records connecting costs to the work. Records captured while work is happening can make later review easier, but no single record type proves eligibility by itself.

Repository metadata can help show when work occurred and who contributed. It is most useful when paired with records that explain the project: the business component, uncertainty, alternatives tested, results, and the connection between work and claimed costs. Commit history alone does not establish that an activity qualifies or that a time allocation is correct. QuarryFi organizes those references for CPA review without collecting source code.

Form 6765 (Credit for Increasing Research Activities) is used to calculate the federal research credit. It includes Regular Credit and Alternative Simplified Credit calculations, along with rules that can affect the final result. For tax years beginning after 2025, Section G business-component reporting is generally required unless a stated exception applies. The form and underlying support should be reviewed by the taxpayer's qualified tax professional before filing.

Capturing records while work is happening can make later review easier because project context, decisions, and supporting records are still available. It does not replace the need to evaluate the four-part test, exclusions, cost allocations, and the taxpayer's final filing position. QuarryFi helps organize activity references and review notes; a CPA or tax attorney decides how they support a claim.

QuarryFi uses flat software pricing with no success fee because it prepares documentation support, not a done-for-you study or filing. Free supports a current-year discovery workflow. Core adds documentation exports, VS Code, Claude Code, and Codex heartbeats, AI-assisted review, actual compensation and contractor context, draft Form 6765 inputs, and staged R&E expense workflows. You or your tax professional still review, sign, file, and submit any claim. Current monthly, annual, and extra-seat prices are shown on the Pricing page before checkout.

An amended return may be possible, but the applicable period and claim requirements depend on the taxpayer's facts, filing history, and current IRS guidance. Discuss prior-year claims with a qualified tax professional before relying on a general three-year rule. QuarryFi's repository sync and exports are focused on the active tax year today.

No. QuarryFi reads development metadata from authorized GitHub connections, including commit hashes, timestamps, author identity, repository and branch names, file-change counts, file paths when available, and commit messages. It does not collect source code, diffs, or file contents. Metadata and generated support records can still be commercially sensitive, so QuarryFi keeps storage private, authorizes access by company and resource, and recommends that customers connect only what they are authorized to use.

No. QuarryFi is documentation preparation software. It tracks development activity, classifies it against IRS Section 41 criteria, and generates supporting documentation and draft Form 6765 inputs that you provide to your CPA or tax attorney for review. QuarryFi does not provide tax advice, file or submit credits, sign tax returns, or guarantee filing outcomes. Credit estimates are projections based on available data and should not be relied upon as guaranteed amounts. Always consult a qualified tax professional before claiming R&D credits.