R&D department and tax breaks:what is the programmer role in it?

Question

I had a little conversation with a colleague a couple of days ago about tax breaks that can be given to r&d department of some companies, but to justify that tax break, you need to prove that you really are a real r&d department by documenting all uncertainty that your projects may have that lead to a real research and implementation of a specific solution.

How can i document my project as a programmer when i am given a project with expected results? should i keep under source control the results of all my analysis (and code) , whether they work or not?

As a programmer, i am used to promote only the portion of my code that works, not everything that i have meticulously tried before reaching that solution whether it works or not. How would you adapt to allow your company to get that tax break if you work on an R&D Department?

I would love to hear what you have to say on the subject.

Answer 1

You would need to document why what you are doing is considered R&D. I just went through this myself, and it involved listing out existing solutions to the problems I am solving, and why they won't work. You have to document the research component to what you are doing. The development is not what the tax breaks are for, it's for innovation and research, and the development necessary to turn ideas into something concrete.

Answer 2

Record your failures in branches so that when you merge, only the good gets pushed forward. Or use sandbox branches.