R&D Tax Credits
Audio & Visual / System Integrators
If your team is wiring rooms together with custom programming, you are doing R&D and you probably know it.
$0
Initial assessment. No fee to find out.
4-8 wks
Typical study, start to finish.
9 yrs
Building defensible credit claims since 2017.
Why this work qualifies
Most integrators think of themselves as installers, not research shops. The IRS definition disagrees. When your programmers write custom control logic for a room that has never existed before, or your engineers work out how to make hardware from five vendors behave as one system, that is engineering work with real technical uncertainty. Those are the two ingredients the federal R&D credit was built to reward.
The work that qualifies is usually the work your senior people already lose sleep over: signal flow that has to be designed rather than copied, DSP tuning for a difficult space, integration protocols that fight each other until someone engineers a fix. Generalist CPAs rarely see this as R&D because it does not happen in a lab. We document it project by project so the claim stands on the same records your team already produces.
Common qualifying activities
- ✓Programming control systems (Crestron, Lutron, Savant, Q-Sys)
- ✓Engineering custom rack and signal flow layouts
- ✓Integrating disparate hardware protocols
- ✓Prototyping new install methods for novel rooms
- ✓Designing acoustic or networked-audio solutions
What typically does not qualify
Straightforward installs that follow the manufacturer playbook, cable pulls, routine service calls, and equipment sales generally do not qualify. A credible study separates that work out. Claiming it anyway is how aggressive providers create audit problems.
$327K
identified for Argenta Solutions, a smart home and integration firm, on a 3-year lookback.
Read the Argenta Solutions case study (PDF) →Individual results vary based on each company's activities, documentation, and facts.
$300K+
identified for a Utah A/V integrator across qualifying design and programming work.
Read the A/V case study (PDF) →Individual results vary based on each company's activities, documentation, and facts.
Common questions
Audio & Visual / System Integrators, answered.
We install other companies' hardware. Can that really be R&D?
Often, yes. The credit rewards how you make systems work, not who manufactured the boxes. Custom programming, integration engineering, and novel install methods can qualify even when every component is off the shelf. The four-part test looks at technical uncertainty and experimentation, not invention of new hardware.
Which of our costs typically count?
Wages for programmers, design engineers, and project engineers doing qualifying work are usually the largest bucket. Certain contractor costs and materials consumed in prototyping can also count, depending on the facts. A study maps costs to specific qualifying projects.
Will claiming the credit put a target on our back?
Overreaching does. Well-documented claims for genuinely qualifying work do not carry the same profile. Our approach is to maximize what your records can defend and leave out what they cannot, which is exactly the line the IRS expects a credible study to draw.
Ready to find out
Find out what your R&D work is worth.
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