ELI5: why is this blowing up on HN this particular week in 2025. Is there a trigger? As it has been known about for a while.
It's actively being discussed in Congress and is a part of OBBBA.
" H.R.1990 - American Innovation and R&D Competitiveness Act of 2025 "
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1990...
> A bipartisan bill reintroduced in Congress last month could offer long-awaited relief to small tech companies hit hardest by an obscure federal tax change — one that many founders say is threatening their survival.
> Industry groups from the Small Software Business Alliance to the National Venture Capital Association and TECNA are backing the bill, which sits in committee. Over 100 House members have signed on. The bill would reverse the changes not just going forward, but also retroactively.
https://technical.ly/startups/r-d-tax-change-reversal-startu...
> On May 13, the House Ways and Means Committee passed “The One, Big Beautiful Bill.” This bill includes several provisions that, if enacted, will be important to businesses claiming research and development incentives:
> The bill would suspend the current amortization requirement for domestic R&D expenses and allow companies to fully deduct domestic research costs in the year incurred for tax years beginning January 1, 2025 and ending December 31, 2029.
https://www.crowell.com/en/insights/client-alerts/house-comm...
> The OBBBA suspends required capitalization of domestic research and experimental expenditures for amounts paid or incurred in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2024, and before January 1, 2030. Under the OBBBA, at the taxpayer’s election, such expenditures can be: deducted as paid or incurred under new Section 174A(a),
https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2025/05/the-on...
So is the idea here that the tech community should support the Big Beautiful Bill ?
Because that would be just typical.
I'm confused. The requirement to amortize software engineer expenses was introduced in Trump's first term, but now he wants to revoke it in OBBBA? But only for 5 years?
Besides "kicking the can" to another administration, the 5 year thing is a hack to get budget legislation past the CBO.
The CBO calculates costs over 10 years, so if you introduce a tax cut that sunsets after 5 years it looks much less bad (for the deficit) than it really is. Then you hope that in 5 years some other legislation comes along to renew it for another 5 years...
It was passed in 2017 to go into effect in 2023. Trump now wants to suspend it until 2029. You may notice that in both cases it is being passed under a Republican-controlled executive but goes into effect under the next administration. This is the point.