Making losses count

Even though Congress continues to argue over the future of large-scale tax reform, a small business interest group is pushing several proposals that could inject as much as $20 billion annually into pre-profit R&D companies in biotech and other sectors, according to an economic analysis conducted by Ernst & Young.

The Coalition of Small Business Innovators - which counts the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) among its members - wants tax law changes that provide tax breaks and deductions to investors in loss-making R&D companies that lack near-term revenues. An R&D company would be defined as an entity with 75% of expenditures on research, assets of $150 million or less and 250 employees or fewer...