Research and Development Tax Credit Program

Research and Development Tax Credit Program (section 220.196, Florida Statutes) Florida provides a corporate income tax credit for eligible businesses for certain qualified research expenses. The corporate income tax credit is contingent, in part, on the eligible business having received the federal research and development tax credit. Taxpayers will be able to apply to the Florida Department of Revenue (DOR) for an allocation of the Florida Research and Development Credit beginning on March 20, 2023.

To participate in this program, the corporation must claim and be allowed a research credit against federal income tax for qualified research expenses under section 41, IRC., and be in one of the following targeted industries:

• Aviation and Aerospace
• Cloud Information Technology
• Homeland Security and Defense
• Information Technology
• Life Sciences
• Manufacturing
• Marine Sciences
• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology

Applicants will be required to include a letter from the Florida Department of Commerce (FloridaCommerce) certifying the applicant is an eligible target industry business when submitting an Application for Allocation of Credit with DOR. 

Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies:  Businesses that are partnerships, limited liability companies taxed as partnerships, or disregarded single member limited liability companies, are not corporations under section 220.03, Florida Statutes, and, therefore, may not apply for an allocation of credit. However, each corporate partner of a partnership may apply separately for an allocation of credit based on the corporation’s separate research expenses, including allocated partnership research expenses. For disregarded entities, the corporation that owns the single member limited liability company must apply separately for an allocation of credit based on the corporation’s separate research expenses, including those of the disregarded single member limited liability company.

Please be advised that FloridaCommerce Certification letters will expire three years from the date of the certification letter.  Companies will need to be re-certified by FloridaCommerce if they plan to submit an Application for an Allocation of Credit after their certification letter expires. 

Below is a chart reflecting the final application deadline to DOR for companies that were issued FloridaCommerce Certification Letters in calendar years 2022, 2023, and 2024:

New applicants will be required to complete and submit a new FloridaCommerce Certification Request Form.

• 2024 FloridaCommerce Certification Request Form
• 2024 FloridaCommerce Certification Request Form Instructions

Applicants may obtain and return the completed FloridaCommerce Certification Request Form by attaching it within an email message sent to:

• R&DCertificationRequest@Commerce.fl.gov

FloridaCommerce must receive this certification request form before 5:00 pm (Eastern Standard Time) on Friday, February 24, 2024. 

The DOR website contains information on this program, including application and tax credit program requirements. DOR may be contacted by telephone at (850) 488-6800. Find out more about this tax credit program and the requirements in Tax Information Publication (TIP) 17C01-01.

For further information, please contact:
Bianca Rubio
FloridaCommerce
Division of Economic Development
107 East Madison Street; MSC 80
Tallahassee, Florida  32399
Phone: 407.280.9060
E-mail: R&DCertificationRequest@Commerce.fl.gov