🦍 OBBB Play: You Can Now Amend Old Returns and Deduct Your R&D Expenses — Instantly
Good news for every SMB that’s ever tinkered, coded, or built something in the U.S.:
The new OBBB just gave you a tax time machine for your research and development (R&D) expenses.
🚀 What Changed (And Why Your Accountant is Doing Backflips)
Before 2025, R&D deductions were a pain:
You had to spread them over 5 years (thank you, TCJA… not).
Startups lost big upfront write-offs and often missed cash flow.
Now?
Section 174A lets you write off 100% of your U.S. R&D and software dev costs the year you spend it.
Wages, supplies, contract research? All included.
No more 5-year wait.
But here’s the best part: You can go back and fix prior years.
🦍 How Retroactive Deductions Work
Did R&D in 2022, 2023, or 2024 and had to amortize it?
Now you get three big moves:
Amend prior returns — claim full deduction now, maybe get a refund
Elect a catch-up deduction — write off your remaining balance all at once in 2025
Spread it over 2025–2026 — take the deduction over 2 years if you prefer
💻 Example: The SaaS Startup Banana
You spent $50,000 on software R&D in 2022
Only deducted $10K per year so far (because of old law)
$20K still left to deduct
Your options:
Amend 2022 & 2023 → get $40,000 of deduction and a possible cash refund
Deduct the $20K balance all in 2025
Or split it: $10K in 2025, $10K in 2026
👀 Who Qualifies?
U.S.-based R&D, product dev, or software work
Under ~$29M in avg gross receipts over 3 years
You capitalized/amortized R&D costs in 2022–2024
Partnership or S-corp? Deductions flow through — check your personal bracket for max refund.
🦔 How Hedgi Makes This (Almost) Too Easy
Flags old amortized R&D in your ledger
Runs side-by-side models: amend vs. catch-up vs. spread
Exports the right numbers for your CPA or for IRS election
Keeps all your documentation audit-ready (so no one goes ape at tax time)
🎯 Bottom Line
This is one of the juiciest, least-known tax moves of OBBB.
If you did any R&D, software, or product dev since 2022 — don’t leave money on the table.
Let Hedgi help you analyze, file, and save.
Join the waitlist, and let’s make tax reform work for your next big idea.