Tax credits for plants, foundries, and warehouses.
You qualify for R&D credit even without a white-coat lab — if you iterate on tooling, process, or product. Stack federal and state R&D, energy ITC bonuses, apprenticeship, and the obvious hiring credits underneath.
Who this is for
Plants, foundries, machine shops, food processing facilities, and light-industrial warehouses. R&D applies to process iteration as much as product invention; energy retrofits qualify under the IRA.
- ✓Plants and process manufacturers (food, beverage, chemicals)
- ✓Discrete manufacturers (parts, equipment, tooling)
- ✓Light-industrial warehouses and distribution centers
- ✓Foundries, mills, and metal-fabrication shops
Programs we file
The capture stack for manufacturing & light industrial.
The programs we routinely file for operators in this category. Per-credit value is a working range — your actual capture depends on hiring volume and jurisdictions.
R&D Federal
Process iteration and product development qualify — not just lab science.
R&D State
State-level R&D credits in 38 states stack on the federal credit.
Payroll Offset (R&D)
For young companies, R&D can be applied against payroll tax instead of income tax.
Work Opportunity
Hiring credit on qualified Target Group employees — meaningful in higher-turnover plants.
Apprenticeship
Apprentice hour credits and stackable wage bonuses for construction-side work.
Energy ITC
30% federal ITC on qualifying energy retrofits, plus IRA bonus multipliers.
Where capture leaks
The problems we solve, specifically.
The problem
R&D Federal goes unfiled because operators assume they "don't do R&D."
What Trak does
Discovery interview surfaces the qualifying process and product work, then we substantiate it for filing.
The problem
State R&D programs vary widely and rarely get cross-mapped against federal claims.
What Trak does
Atlas runs state R&D eligibility against your facility footprint automatically.
The problem
Energy retrofit ITC + bonus credits are left on the table for retrofits already underway.
What Trak does
Pre-filing energy substantiation for ITC + prevailing-wage and domestic-content bonuses.
How it lands
Week 1 to first capture.
Week 1
R&D discovery interview
A 90-minute structured interview with engineering and operations leads to surface qualifying process and product work. Atlas-ingested cost data follows.
Weeks 2–3
Federal + state R&D scope
Qualified research expenses (QREs) substantiated against payroll, supplies, and contract research. State R&D eligibility mapped against the facility footprint.
Weeks 3–4
Energy + apprenticeship
Energy retrofit projects scoped for ITC + IRA bonus multipliers (PW, domestic content, energy community). Apprenticeship hour and ratio capture goes live across crews.
Months 2–6
Filing + workpapers
Federal + state R&D filed (or amended for open years); energy ITC substantiation ships; quarterly captures continue across WOTC, apprenticeship, and state programs.
Industry-specific failure modes
If any of these look familiar…
Operator says "we don't do R&D"
Process iteration, tooling design, new-material testing, and production-line optimization all qualify under the federal R&D credit. The discovery interview is built to surface this.
Energy ITC claimed without bonus multipliers sequenced
PW, domestic content, and energy community bonuses can add up to 5× on the ITC. They require pre-construction sequencing — claimed after the fact, they're rarely defensible.
Payroll Offset (R&D) not run for young companies
Companies under 5 years old with under $5M in gross receipts can apply R&D credit against payroll tax — up to $500K/yr. Most operators don't know it exists.
State R&D filed only at the federal entity
State R&D requires per-state mapping; the federal substantiation doesn't translate automatically. 38 states have programs; coverage varies materially.
What we ship
Deliverables and integrations.
Deliverables
Qualifying activities mapped to QREs (payroll, supplies, contract research) with the substantiation narrative ready for filing.
Per-state R&D program eligibility mapped against your facility footprint, with the recoverable value per state per open year.
PW, domestic content, and energy community bonus eligibility analysis per project, with the pre-construction sequencing needed to qualify.
Centralized apprentice-hour and ratio capture per project, with the eligibility math handled automatically.
Integrations
SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Plex, IFS — for QRE substantiation against cost-center data.
ADP, UKG, Paychex, Workday — for R&D payroll substantiation and WOTC screening.
Plex, Aegis, Rockwell — for process-iteration substantiation when production data is needed.
Procore, Buildertrend, Sage 100 Contractor — for energy and apprenticeship project capture.
Payback math
R&D credit alone usually clears the platform fee.
For a 22-site manufacturer with $80–$200M in revenue, federal R&D credit alone typically delivers $250K–$1M of recovery in the first filing year. State R&D and energy ITC stack on top.
Illustrative ranges. Actual results depend on your workforce and circumstances.
Industry questions, answered.
We don't have a lab. Can we still claim R&D?
Yes. The federal R&D credit applies to process iteration as much as product invention — qualifying activities include tooling design, new-material testing, production-line optimization, and process control improvements. If you iterate on how you make things, you likely qualify.
How does the IRA bonus multiplier work on energy ITC?
The base 30% federal ITC can stack with three bonus multipliers — prevailing wage (5×), domestic content (10–20%), and energy community (10%). PW and DC require pre-construction sequencing. We file the substantiation alongside the project plan, not after the fact.
Is the Payroll Offset for R&D real?
Yes. For companies under 5 years old with under $5M in gross receipts, the R&D credit can be applied against payroll tax (up to $500K/year) instead of income tax. Useful for early-stage manufacturers in growth.
What audit risk does this carry?
R&D and energy credits both attract higher examination rates than WOTC. We file with workpapers that are built for examination from day one — substantiation narratives, cost ties, time-tracking, and engineering interviews documented and retained.