Is it? "In the case of a taxpayer’s specified research or experimental expenditures for any taxable year—" is pretty clear. That means what someone wants to claim as research and experimental expenditures. "For the purposes of this section" also seems pretty clear. If you want to claim software development as R&E, it unambiguously qualifies. And now all R&E must be amortized.
I am not a tax expert, but it doesn't seem like there's any reason you have to claim software development as R&E.
For purposes of this section, any amount paid or incurred in connection with the development of any software shall be treated as a research or experimental expenditure.
It means before you may have had to justify whether software development qualified as R&E, now you don’t. It unambiguously qualifies, if you’re claiming it as R&E. And unlike before, R&E must now be amortized.
But AFAIK you don’t need to claim it as R&E. That everyone has to claim all software development as “research and experimental expenditure” seems completely unfounded and a misunderstanding.
Yup. Exactly. And from that perspective this is actually a good thing, because now you don’t have to worry about whether software development qualifies as R&E.
I am not a tax expert, but it doesn't seem like there's any reason you have to claim software development as R&E.