Forest ProductsTax Credit Sourcebook

Georgia · research and development · GA-RD-001

Research Tax Credit

Publication revised September 24, 2026. Sourcebook page 86.

Credit amount / calculation

10% of excess qualified research expenses over the Georgia base amount, subject to use limits.

Business fit and eligible activity

Georgia manufacturers can claim a credit for increased qualified research. Qualified research activity. Ordinary production, routine quality control and an equipment purchase alone do not qualify.

Eligibility and practical use

A wood-products company can miss this credit by assuming that "research" means white coats and laboratories. In practice, qualifying work can arise in process engineering, product development, automation, drying, recovery, and software. A logging company has a narrower path, but equipment-control, software, or process-development work can sometimes qualify if it satisfies the same technical tests.

Illustrative business benefit

A hardwood mill spends $320,000 on a documented project to improve recovery from low-grade logs using scanner changes, controlled test runs, software adjustments, and revised sawing patterns. Assume $200,000 is ultimately treated as the relevant qualified or excess research base. At 10%, the state credit would be about $20,000 before program caps and tax-liability limits. The company would need records showing the uncertainty, alternatives tested, people involved, and results - not simply a year-end estimate of 'engineering time.'

Timing / first action

Tax-year claim: document the eligible expense, hire or placed-in-service date and meet any separate certification deadline. Identify the technical uncertainty and start contemporaneous project records before trying to calculate the credit.

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