Comment by alkonaut

> maintenance (bug fixes) wouldn't.

Link [2] lists activities related to software development and includes maintenance and debugging. As I understand it this is for the older #41?

• Programming

• Tuning and benchmarking of software

• Performing software maintenance and debugging

...

Am I understanding this correctly that there are two different things at play here: the Section 41 tax credit which works in the companies' favor by allowing them to deduce R&D expenses. Then the Section 174 that requires all expenses to be amortized and the big issue for software firms is that the definitions of R&D differes where it's narrow R&D for the credit, but very broad for #174, resulting in a cash flow problem?