R&D tax credit evidence · checked against the sources on
Form 6765 Section G: what it asks, and who must complete it
Section G of Form 6765 reports your research expenses business component by business component. It is optional for tax years beginning before 2026 and required for tax years beginning after 2025, so for calendar-2026 returns filed in 2027. You do not have to complete it if you are a qualified small business taking the payroll tax election, or if your QREs are $1.5 million or less, your gross receipts $50 million or less, and you file an original return. Filers who must complete it list components covering at least 80% of their QREs, at most 50, largest first.
“Section G will be optional for all filers for tax years beginning before 2026”
IRS: Instructions for Form 6765 (rev. 12/2025) (read 9 Oct 2026)
Evidence to review with your tax adviser; not tax advice.
Who must complete it
- Tax years beginning before 2026: optional for everyone.
- Tax years beginning after 2025: required, unless one of the two exceptions below applies.
- Not required: a qualified small business that checks the box to take the payroll tax election (up to $500,000 a year against the employer's Social Security and then Medicare tax, claimed on Form 8974).
- Not required: QREs of $1.5 million or less, average gross receipts of $50 million or less over the prior three years, and an original return.
Exempt or not, the claim still needs records behind it. The instructions point to Treas. Reg. §1.41-4(d) and §6001; see the documentation requirements.
What it asks, per business component
| Line | Asks for | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 49(a), (b) | The entity's EIN and principal business activity code | Your return |
| 49(c) | The business component's name or a unique identifier | You name it; git shows which folders and services its work touched |
| 49(d) | Its type: Product, Process, or All Others | Your adviser |
| 49(e) | For software: internal-use (IUS), dual-function (DFS), non-IUS, or excepted | Your adviser; the code shows who the software serves |
| 50, 51, 52 | Wages for performing the research, for direct supervision, and for direct support | Payroll; git can show where each person's work went, not what they were paid |
| 53 | Total wages | Payroll |
| 54, 55, 56 | Supplies, computer rental or lease, and contract research | Your ledger |
Components are listed largest first by QREs, enough of them to cover at least 80% of the total, and no more than 50; the rest go in one aggregate line. Amended returns carry more. The lines are from the IRS instructions (rev. 12/2025); the final version was issued on 6 February 2026 (KPMG).
From folders to business components
A business component is a product, process, piece of software, technique, formula or invention, not a folder. Git counts work by folder and by person, which is the raw material: decide which folders make up each component, then the history shows who worked on each one, when, and where alternatives were tried. Wages per component then come from splitting each person's payroll by where their work went, a method your adviser has to accept; git records when people committed, not how long they worked.
Check your own, on your machine
npx --allow-git=root github:agentwares/rd-ledger --year 2026 --component "Name=apps/router/**,packages/geo/**"- Count the year's changes by folder, the nearest thing git has to a business component: git log --since=2026-01-01 --until=2027-01-01 --format= --name-only | cut -d/ -f1-2 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
- Name your business components in your own words (a product, a process, a piece of software) and write down which folders each one covers.
- For each component, list the people who changed it: git shortlog -sn --since=2026-01-01 --until=2027-01-01 -- <its folders>
- For each component, mark the type Section G asks for (Product, Process or All Others) and, for software, whether it is internal-use; that is your adviser's call.
- Wages, supplies, computer rental and contract research come from payroll and the ledger, not from git. Git only shows where each person's work went.
It runs git on your repository, makes no network request and calls no LLM, and writes a dated evidence pack, evidence.md and CSVs, with each line traced to its commit. Hours and amounts appear only from figures you supply. Source (MIT)
A year-round R&D evidence ledger, kept month by month as the work happens, is not built. Each month's evidence captured that month and kept under a date we hold, so the record shows when it existed; at year end, the hours or wages you enter allocated across your business components in Form 6765 Section G's shape; and a read-only link for your tax adviser.
Not built. No price is set and nothing is charged. It gets built only if enough people ask.
Count me inSources
- IRS: Instructions for Form 6765 (rev. 12/2025) (read 9 Oct 2026)
- KPMG: final updated instructions for Form 6765 (published 11 Feb 2026; read 9 Oct 2026)
- IRS: qualified small business payroll tax credit for increasing research activities (updated 28 Jun 2026; read 9 Oct 2026)