Congress has extended and expanded the research and development (R&D) tax credit, but the taxpayer still bears the burden of proving its qualifications to the IRS with documentation. This means identifying and documenting qualified research activities and associated costs on an annual basis.

A Grant Thornton survey of more than 300 CEOs, CFOs, comptrollers and tax executives revealed that a majority of companies are just not prepared to meet the new and stricter IRS standards. Find out more about documenting R&D activities and calculating the credit in our white paper:

Accounting has been defined by the AICPA as " The art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of financial character, and interpreting the results thereof."

J. Newman

Accounting : It's So Hot

Accounting is the degree of measurement of financial transactions which are transfers of legal property rights made under contractual relationships. Non-financial transactions are specifically excluded due to conservatism and materiality principles.
At the heart of modern financial accounting is the double-entry bookkeeping system. This system involves making at least two entries for every transaction: a debit in one account, and a corresponding credit in another account. The sum of all debits should always equal the sum of all credits, providing a simple way to check for errors. This system was first used in medieval Europe, although claims have been made that the system dates back to Ancient Rome or Greece.