Florida enacted a Research and Development (R&D) tax credit for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2012 for qualified business enterprises with qualified research expenses in the state of Florida.  The Florida R&D credit is generally 10% of the qualified research expenses incurred in Florida that exceeds the four prior year average qualified R&D expenses.  In order to qualify for the R&D tax credit a business enterprise must submit an application on or after March 20 of the following year.  There is a yearly cap of $9 million and the credit appears to be on a “first-come-first-serve” basis.  Therefore, companies wishing to take advantage of the new Florida R&D credit for 2012 should file their application on or very soon after March 20, 2013 in order to be as close to the front of the line of applicants as possible.