For 2012 the ability to claim a portion of the $9 million available to be allocated to qualifying companies has expired.  Florida requires companies apply for the $9 million pool of R&D credits on March 20 at 8:00 AM ET of each year that the credit is available.  The applying company must apply on-line at the Department of Revenue’s website at www.myflorida.com/dor/ on or after March 20 of the subsequent year the R&D tax credit is being applied for, i.e. if the company is applying for the Florida 2012 tax credit the application must be completed on or after March 20, 2013.

According to the Florida Department of Revenue’s website as of the end of April 2013, the Florida R&D tax credit allocations have been distributed and no further applications are being accepted.   Since 2012 is the first year that the Florida R&D credit has been available, this should be a notice to companies hoping to take advantage of the Florida R&D tax credit in the future.  Companies that wish to take a Florida R&D tax credit for their 2013 income tax return should have the following information readily available before March 20, 2014 and have someone on hand to log into the Florida Department of Revenue’s web site that day.

The information that is required to file the application:

  • Tax year
  • Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN)
  • Corporation name and date of incorporation
  • Mailing address
  • Contact person’s name, telephone number, and e-mail address
  • Parent corporation’s name and FEIN (if filing a consolidated Florida income tax return)
  • Indication of corporation’s target industry and list of corporation’s activities, products, and services in Florida
  • Indication of corporation’s intent to claim a federal research credit and amount of the corporation’s total (including Florida and non-Florida) research expenses qualifying for the federal research credit under IRC section 41 incurred during the tax year
  • Research expenses incurred in Florida during the base years that qualified for the federal research credit under IRC section 41
  • Qualified research expenses incurred in Florida during the tax year.

    Based on the extremely quick depletion of the $9 million of allocated R&D credits available for 2012, a company considering applying for the credit for 2013 should plan well in advance to gather the information required to make a complete application submission in March 20, 2014.  The company should have a designated representative or company employee on hand and ready to log into to Florida Department of Revenue’s web site the morning of March 20, 2014 and complete the application process.