What would a welder do that isn't research or development? I believe for both jobs certain tasks are journeyman-like, but others are legit R&D. I don't think software ought to be blanket-exempted because its done on a computer.
That's why you have to take into account that it's "research and development", and not "research" and "development". As in research and the development of that research, not separately research and development.
Yeah, forcing physical-world norms into technology will always result in weird shit like this.
For the "real" world, Research would be studying different compounds to see which ones work well as anode or cathode.
Development would be creating the industrial processes required to scale up manufacturing, or the ancillary infrastructure to support the new battery, or designing a new package for this awesome new cell. All the things that take the new thing from the lab to a marketable product.
So if you come up with a new method for welding ("My new filler alloy reduces argon requirements by half!" or "My new pulsing methodology results in 23% stronger welds between dissimilar alloys.") That's Research. Then the Development of that might be "How do we manufacture these new filler rods to the exacting specs required?" or "We need to have the EE people incorporate my pulsing algo in our welders. Right now it's running on an Arduino in the lab, we need it included in next year's Welder XL4000 model."
Actually doing the weld is just doing the job.
So, back to software. What kind of coding is considered R&D and what is considered "just doing the job"? I guess creating new algorithms, or new features that you expect to be in the product for years to come; those would be R&D. Whereas fixing bugs, working on Kubernetes stuff, writing database backup routines, etc. would not be?
I don't know. This is just my impression of the difference. I'm no economist.
> So, back to software. What kind of coding is considered R&D and what is considered "just doing the job"? I guess creating new algorithms, or new features that you expect to be in the product for years to come; those would be R&D. Whereas fixing bugs, working on Kubernetes stuff, writing database backup routines, etc. would not be?
I would still count the later as R&D. It's akin to having an industrial engineer re-design the manufacturing floor to accommodate for the different manufacturing process of the anodes.
As soon as you need to customize something, it becomes R&D (else you would have purchased it). The "just the job" part is invisible because, well, it's the machine who's doing it (applications auto-start, install, send updates).
Welding stuff is developing a product. Basically the same thing software developers do. It seems like a nonsense differentiation if those are categorized differently for taxes.
It can be development, if you are building a prototype for example. a good welder will notice that a bracket is missing and design one one the spot so the whole can be built for now - while telling the engineers about the problem.
That is a small % of welding though. Most is just straight production work. The % is open to question - if I ask you to put a winch mount on my trailer how much of that is custom R&D, and how much is production of the one off product?
Sure, I agree, but there are likely standard approaches, especially in the older trades, where the development is making ~1 decision and then measuring.
Like if the carpenter is installing some shelves, they are most likely picking a shelving system or approach they know how to work with and measuring for fit, not coming up with a brand new way to mount shelves. They might come up with a new way, it just isn't all that likely.
The same can be said for a lot of software developers. How many people spend their days gluing together existing libraries vs. writing their own? This rule seems ridiculous; I fail to understand why they're are different tax write off rates for employees based on what they're doing. Either way they're being paid by the business!
The entirety of the rule seems to exist to punish small players in the market. A barrier to entry to box out competition.
The difference is repetition. Many welders work some form of assembly line, where they constantly are welding the same bracket on and sending the part down the line.
Even if they are not on a line, few welders are designing the bracket, instead they cut it out according to blueprints (this might be a separate person) and then weld it on. Then they look at the next part of the blueprint and put it on.
Here's the IRS' guidance on software: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/audit-guidelines-on-the-appli...