Under the December 2015 Path Act, Congress will provide additional R&D tax credit incentives for small business, as defined as a company with less than $5 million in receipts and no history of receipts longer than 5 years – stated another way – a company with gross receipts starting in 2012 or later, and less than $5 million in receipts may qualify for a payroll tax offset by using the R&D tax credit generated for the 2016 tax year to offset FICA (employer portion) payroll tax payments in 2017 once the taxpayer files its 2016 R&D credit on an original return.  The IRS will likely issue a notice or other guidance to clarify the manner in which it would like to administer this new provision for small businesses starting in 2017.