Orange County · R&D Tax Credit
If your Orange County startup pays engineers or scientists to build or improve software, hardware, or biotech products, it likely qualifies for the R&D tax credit. Staxiom's practice is led by a co-founder who ran EY's West Coast R&D Tax Credit group for 13 years, on fixed fees, never a percentage of the refund.
Federal and California R&D credit studies for engineering, hardware, and biotech work.
No contingency or percentage-of-refund pricing, ever.
Documentation and audit support if a claim ever gets questioned.
California offers its own R&D credit alongside the federal one: 15% of qualified research expenses above a base amount, or 24% of basic research payments to qualified universities and nonprofits. It's nonrefundable but carries forward indefinitely. Unlike the federal credit, it has no payroll tax offset, so it only has value once there's California income tax liability to offset, worth planning around for a pre-revenue Irvine biotech or hardware company.
Read the full breakdown of what qualifies and how to claim it on the R&D tax credit guide, or see how this looks for Los Angeles and San Diego startups.
If the work meets the IRS's four-part test, yes, both. California's credit runs alongside the federal one at 15% of qualified research expenses over a base amount (24% for basic research payments to universities), but it's nonrefundable with no payroll tax offset, so the federal credit is usually what actually helps a pre-revenue company first.
Not automatically more, but often broader: hardware and biotech R&D tends to involve more contract research and prototype costs alongside engineering wages, both of which can count as qualified research expenses if they meet the four-part test, whereas a pure software team's qualifying spend is usually just engineering payroll.
Add your revenue and website for a full review, reviewed by a CPA who ran EY's West Coast R&D Tax Credit practice for 13 years.