Keep That Tax Credit!

The research and development tax credit is about to expire at the close of this year. Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Marion Blakey said, “…the tax credit is vital to ensuring the strength of our nation’s defense industrial base and must be extended, preferably permanently.” This credit is needed to encourage innovation in the aerospace and defense industries who provide 642,000 high-paying jobs across the nation and account for a $57 billion positive foreign trade balance. Now, the key is to seeing what can be done to keep Congress in town before their upcoming holiday recess… (yep, another one…) While the credit is important to all 276 members of the AIA, the credit is vital to the small- to medium-sized companies who supply components to the large corporations that make platforms, such as missiles and airplanes. Many of these smaller companies are run by families. They simply don’t have the large budgets of big corporations to fund independent R&D. Really, the credit is often the only avenue open to them to work on technological progress—Arlington, Virginia