R&D tax credits, defended
Claim every dollar of R&D credit you have earned — and be able to prove it.
CreditArmor pairs AI-assisted analysis of your payroll, ledgers and engineering records with specialist review, so your federal and state research credit claims are both maximised and examination-ready.
- 37
- Federal and state programs tracked
- 4-part
- Test applied to every project
- $500k
- Annual payroll tax offset available
- 20 yrs
- Federal credit carryforward
How it works
From first conversation to a file you can defend
Four stages. Automation handles volume; specialists own every position that reaches a return.
01
Scope the claim
A short conversation on entities, tax years, systems and prior credit history. You leave with a clear view of what is worth reviewing.
02
Analyse the evidence
Payroll, ledgers and engineering records are clustered into candidate projects. Specialists apply the four-part test before anything is treated as qualified.
03
Document and file-ready
Project narratives, cost schedules and gap lists are assembled so the claim is examination-ready — not just a number on a worksheet.
04
Defend when needed
The same team that built the file supports IDRs, examinations and appeals, so the story on the return matches the evidence on hand.
What we do
A complete research credit function, without building one in-house
Eight service lines that cover the full lifecycle of a claim: finding it, calculating it, documenting it and defending it.
AI-Powered R&D Tax Credit Review
Machine-assisted analysis of your projects, payroll and ledgers to size a defensible credit before you file.
Learn moreAudit Readiness
Stress-test an existing or planned claim against the evidence standards examiners actually apply.
Learn moreCompliance Review
An independent second opinion on methodology, base period calculations and multi-state apportionment.
Learn moreDocumentation Builder
Turn engineering activity into contemporaneous, examination-ready project narratives — continuously, not annually.
Learn moreAudit Defense Support
Specialist representation from the first information document request through appeals.
Learn moreRisk Assessment
Quantify exposure across open tax years before a lender, acquirer or examiner does it for you.
Learn moreProfessional Training
Practical R&D credit training for CPA firms, in-house tax teams and finance functions.
Learn moreWorkshops
Facilitated working sessions that produce a documented credit position in a single day.
Learn moreBenefits
Built for companies that will be asked to justify the number
A research credit is only worth what survives examination. Everything we do is shaped by that.
Defensible by construction
Every position is built on contemporaneous evidence and mapped to the statute, so the file is examination-ready the day it is filed.
Faster to a credible number
Automated data analysis compresses weeks of ledger and payroll review into days, without shortening the specialist review that follows.
Federal and state in one pass
State programs are analysed alongside the federal claim, including refundable, transferable and application-gated programs with hard deadlines.
Backed by specialists
Technical review and examination defense come from the Swanson Reed bench, a practice built exclusively around research credits.
Why CreditArmor
Specialist judgement, accelerated by automation
The software does the volume work. People make every decision that ends up on a return.
Specialists, not generalists
Research credits are all we do. That focus is why our reviews find qualifying work that general practices miss and why we know where claims fail.
Evidence before estimates
We will tell you when a project does not qualify. A smaller claim that survives examination is worth more than a large one that does not.
Documentation as a system
Records are captured continuously from the tools your teams already use, so the annual claim is assembly rather than reconstruction.
Defense included in the thinking
Claims are prepared by the same people who defend them, which changes what gets written down and what gets left out.
Credit database
Federal and 36 state R&D credit programs, in one searchable place
Rates, refundability, carryforward periods, application deadlines and official links — kept in a structure designed to grow into new states and countries.
Who we help
Built for three kinds of teams
Whether you own the tax file, advise clients, or run the engineering org, CreditArmor is shaped around how R&D credit work actually gets done.
CFOs and finance leaders
You need a credit estimate you can stand behind, documentation that survives scrutiny, and a clear view of federal and state exposure before the return is filed.
Talk to usCPA firms and tax advisors
Bring specialist R&D review and examination support into client engagements without building a dedicated research-credit practice of your own.
Talk to usEngineering-led companies
When development never stops, qualification and documentation have to follow the work — not an annual scramble through tickets and payroll after the fact.
Talk to usFAQ
Common questions about the research credit
More detail on qualification, timing and process is on the FAQ page.
Find out what your research actually qualifies for
A scoping conversation takes thirty minutes and costs nothing. You leave with a view on eligibility, likely credit range and the documentation you would need.