By Ted Friedman and Andrew Appleby

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance issued an Advisory Opinion regarding the availability of Qualified Emerging Technology Company (QETC) facilities, operations and training credits pertaining to purchases of patents and other property related to hollow metal golf ball production. The Department stated that QETC credits for “research and development property” are available only for “tangible property” that is used for “purposes of research and development in the experimental or laboratory sense.” The Department opined that the taxpayer’s purchase of intangible property, including patents, trade secrets and technological know-how, did not qualify as research and development property for QETC credit purposes. However, the Department stated that the taxpayer’s purchase of prototypes and designs of tangible property may qualify as research and development property if the property is used for research and development in the laboratory sense. The Department explained that property is used for research and development in the experimental or laboratory sense if: (1) the information available to the taxpayer does not establish the capability or method for developing or improving a product or process (i.e., an uncertainty exists); and (2) the property is used in an activity intended to discover information that would eliminate this uncertainty. The Department also opined that the taxpayer could not claim QETC credits for “qualified research expenses” because such credits were available for “expenses associated with in‑house research” and associated “dissemination” costs, and the taxpayer had not developed the patents and other property in-house but had purchased the property from a third party. N.Y. Advisory Opinion, TSB-A-14(1)C (Jan. 27, 2014).