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.

Some early-stage businesses may elect to apply a portion of the research credit against payroll taxes. Under the current Form 6765 instructions, a qualified small business is generally a corporation, S corporation, or partnership with less than $5 million in current-year gross receipts and no gross receipts before the five-tax-year period ending with that year. The annual election is capped at $500,000 and has timing and aggregation rules. Your tax professional should determine eligibility and the amount available on the employment tax return.

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. Activities like routine bug fixes, cosmetic UI changes, or deployment using established procedures do not qualify.

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." In practice, this means: timestamped activity logs showing when R&D was performed, by whom, and on which project; technical narratives describing the technological uncertainty addressed and experimentation performed; per-employee time allocation reports showing qualifying vs. non-qualifying hours; and expense categorization tying wages to specific R&D projects. The IRS explicitly prefers contemporaneous records (documentation created at or near the time of the work) over year-end reconstructions.

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.

Traditional R&D credit studies through specialty firms cost $5,000–$30,000+ per year, or charge success fees of 15–25% of the credit amount. A $50,000 credit could cost you $7,500–$12,500 in fees. QuarryFi uses flat software pricing with no success fees because it prepares documentation support, not a done-for-you filing. Free tracks your current tax year at no cost. Core adds documentation exports, VS Code, Claude Code, and Codex heartbeats, AI classification for normal use, compensation and owner draw support, draft Form 6765 inputs, deadline readiness, and R&E expense workflows. You or your tax professional still review, sign, file, and submit the credit. Current Core monthly, annual, and extra-seat prices are shown on the Pricing page.

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. This is a non-negotiable design constraint. QuarryFi reads only metadata from GitHub: commit hashes, timestamps, author identity, repo and branch names, file change counts (additions/deletions), and commit messages. No source code, no diffs, no file contents. All data resides on Cloudflare infrastructure. If QuarryFi were breached, an attacker would get a list of timestamps, project names, and R&D activity summaries, with no trade secrets, no source code, no competitive intelligence.

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.