There’s no city better suited to the Disruptors Awards than Los Angeles. With access to a nationally renowned system of universities, colleges and trade schools, multiple overlapping industry clusters, and over 3.8 million residents, the city is rich with new people and new ideas. Some might say that innovation is the driving force of the Los Angeles business environment. That’s why R&D Incentives Group is proud to be located in sunny LA, where we can support disruptive companies by helping them apply for tax incentive programs designed specifically to reward innovation and employee retention.
Nearly all the companies R&D Incentives Group works with have one thing in common: they are disruptors in their respective industries, using years of expertise to constantly innovate, create jobs, and allow new ideas to flourish. This is true for both the companies applying for the R&D tax credit and those applying for the recently passed Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC). These tax credits further incentivize companies to innovate and offer a lifeline to businesses affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.
The R&D tax credit has always been R&D Incentives Group’s forte. Since its inception, this tax credit has allowed businesses that are developing and/or improving a product and/or a process to recoup the costs of such investments in the form of a federal and state tax credit. In working with companies that qualify for the credit, R&D Incentives Group has been exposed to disruptive companies within a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, pharmacology, VFX post-production, software and technology, and many more. All these businesses have one thing in common: they are driven by the spirit of innovation to constantly improve themselves and their products and processes. In doing so, these companies regularly disrupt their industries by figuring out more cost-effective, efficient and innovative processes and creating never-before-seen products.
Of course, in 2020, the biggest disruptor was not a particular company but the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly disrupted Los Angeles’ booming economy due to the tragic loss of lives and the imposition of necessary-but-inconvenient government-mandated shutdowns. In response to COVID-19, the ERTC was passed as part of the CARES Act. With this credit, businesses that dealt with either a reduction in gross receipts or government mandate-related difficulties, such as mandatory social distancing and/or enhanced
cleaning and sanitizing protocols, are able to qualify for money back in the form of a refundable tax credit.
The relationship between the ERTC and disruptive companies is twofold. Firstly, it offers a lifeline for companies still struggling after the COVID-19 pandemic. These companies, with the extra financial help, are able to get back on their feet and continue to innovate. Secondly, many of the companies R&D Incentives Group works with dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic in the best way they knew how: through innovation. They instituted new software that allowed their employees to work from home, created new processes that allowed their employees to maintain a distance of six feet from each other, and developed innovative strategies that allowed their business to keep operating despite many restrictions and limitations from government mandates.
Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Los Angeles business scene has shown an incredible amount of resilience and even growth, continuing to innovate within even the most difficult circumstances. Each and every company that has been nominated for this award has contributed to the city’s remarkable recovery, by putting themselves on the line to do better and be better, innovating, creating, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. For that reason, you are all true disruptors.
Gabriella Del Greco is a technical writer at R&D Incentives Group. Learn more at rdincentivesgroup.com.
