Short answer. The OBBBA route that let small businesses amend 2022-2024 to deduct previously capitalized domestic research costs closed on July 6, 2026, the outer date set by Rev. Proc. 2025-28. Two things survive it: any business can deduct the remaining unamortized balance starting with the 2025 return with no amendment required, and amended Section 41 credit claims stay available for years still open under the normal refund statute of limitations.
Key facts
| Who qualifies | Average annual gross receipts of $31M or less (Section 448(c) test) |
|---|---|
| What you recover | Domestic research costs capitalized under old Section 174 in 2022-2024 |
| Amend window | Closed July 6, 2026 (Rev. Proc. 2025-28 outer date); the retroactive Section 174A deduction election is no longer available |
| Authority | OBBBA (P.L. 119-21) and Rev. Proc. 2025-28 |
| Still available | The 2025-return catch-up deduction, and amended Section 41 credit claims for years still open under the normal refund statute of limitations |
What changed, and why 2022-2024 are recoverable
The 2017 law forced capitalization; the 2025 law reversed it and reached back.
From tax year 2022 through 2024, Section 174 required every business to capitalize domestic research costs and amortize them over five years instead of deducting them in the year spent. For a software company paying engineers out of runway, that inflated taxable income in exactly the years cash was tightest. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21, signed July 4, 2025) created Section 174A, which restores full expensing of domestic research costs for tax years beginning after December 31, 2024.
For small businesses, the law also reached backward. A business with average annual gross receipts of $31 million or less under the Section 448(c) test could elect to apply Section 174A retroactively to tax years beginning after December 31, 2021: amend 2022, 2023, and 2024, deduct the previously capitalized research costs, and claim the resulting refunds. That retroactive election closed on July 6, 2026. What survives it is covered next.
The window has closed - here is what remains
The July 6, 2026 outer date has passed; two separate paths stay open.
Rev. Proc. 2025-28 set the outer date for the retroactive Section 174A election and its amended returns at the earlier of July 6, 2026 or each year's refund statute of limitations. July 6, 2026 has now passed, so that election-based amend route is closed. What did not close: any business can still deduct the remaining unamortized 2022-2024 balance starting with the 2025 return, all at once or over two years, with no amendment required.
The Section 41 research credit runs on its own clock. Claiming or increasing the credit on an amended return follows the normal refund statute of limitations, generally three years from the original filing, not the July 6 date. For most calendar-year filers that leaves 2023 and 2024 open into 2026 and 2027, and those amended credit claims are where documentation becomes the limiting factor. Your CPA confirms which years remain open against your actual filing dates.
Amended claims live or die on documentation
A refund claim invites a closer look than an original return ever gets.
Since January 10, 2022, the IRS has required research-credit refund claims to identify the business components and research activities behind the numbers before it will process the claim at all. An amended return that adds or changes research positions for 2022-2024 is exactly that kind of claim, and a narrative written in 2026 about work done in 2022 is the weakest form of evidence.
Engineering teams hold an advantage here that most claimants do not: the contemporaneous record already exists. Commits, pull requests, and review threads from 2022-2024 are timestamped, attributable to named engineers, and specific about what was attempted and what failed. R&D Binder builds the per-year documentation from that history, paired with your payroll register for the dollar side.
Keep going
The rest of the amended-return cluster, and where the binder fits:
Sources
Every claim on this page traces to a primary authority. Each source below is independent and verifiable.
- Rev. Proc. 2025-28 (procedural guidance for OBBBA Section 174A elections and amended returns) - Internal Revenue Service
- 26 U.S.C. ยง 174A (domestic research and experimental expenditures) - Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute
- IRS, Instructions for Form 6765 - Internal Revenue Service
- BDO, IRS Issues Procedural Guidance on OBBBA Treatment of R&E Expenditures - BDO
- Cherry Bekaert, Rev. Proc. 2025-28: New Guidance on Section 174A - Cherry Bekaert
Get documentation built to survive an exam
R&D Binder builds the per-year documentation an amended claim leans on: business components, four-part-test rationale, and QRE workpapers drawn from your 2022-2024 commit history plus payroll. Your CPA prepares and files the amended returns - we never prepare or sign a return.