Form 6765, section by section
Form 6765 section by section, the order to fill it in, and the hypothetical year's entries line by line.
Form 6765 does four jobs: it figures the credit, makes the elections, reports the QREs and, for most claims from 2026, describes the research business component by business component. It goes with the income tax return.
Step 1: Section G
Decide whether Section G is required this year. If it is, fill it in first.
Step 2: Section F
Enter the QREs by kind on lines 42–45; line 48 is the total. With Section G, they come from its column totals.
Step 3: Section E
Line 37 counts every business component behind the QREs; line 38 the officers' wages inside line 42.
Step 4: Section B
Compute the credit in Section B (or A), and answer Item A.
Step 5: Section C
Carry the credit through Section C, and complete Form 3800 if you're a C corporation.
Step 6: Section D
If electing the payroll credit, complete Section D.
Form 6765 is built from Section G up: business components, then QREs, then the credit, then the elections.
In this lesson: Section G, the business component detail and the rules for when it's required, has a page of its own.
Pages in this lesson
1 page goes deeper, about 5 minutes in all. Read them in order, or open the one you need.
Where this lesson's rules come from
The sources behind this lesson's requirements, by kind. Anything marked as a convention is ours, not the rule-maker's.
- IRS guidance
- Instructions for Form 6765 (Rev. December 2025), Item A (opens in a new tab)The §280C reduced credit electionPDF · Free to read
- Official form
- Form 6765 (Rev. December 2024), Section B, line 24 (opens in a new tab)Form 6765, Credit for Increasing Research ActivitiesPDF · Free to read
The words this lesson teaches
Each links to its glossary definition, which also names the authority behind it and the components that render it.
- Form 6765The IRS form that figures the research credit, makes the §280C reduced credit election (Item A), the ASC election (Section B) and the qualified small business payroll election (Section D), and reports QREs (Section F) and business components (Section G, required for tax years beginning after 2025 with exceptions)
- Qualified research expensesWhat the credit is computed on: wages for qualified services — doing, directly supervising or directly supporting qualified research (all of a person's wages once that is 80% or more of them) — plus supplies used in the research, rented off-site computers, and 65% of contract research paid to others
- Reduced credit electionAn election on the original timely filed return to take the research credit reduced by the 21% corporate rate (79% of it) instead of cutting the §174A research deduction by the full credit; irrevocable for the year
In the founder glossary
This lesson’s ideas, explained for the founder running the company. Each has an entry in the founder glossary.
See also
- The R&D tax credit and Section 174A for startupsEngineering salaries can earn a federal R&D credit against payroll tax, and Section 174A lets you deduct US research again. What qualifies, what to track.
- Form 1120: what to give your tax preparer, and whenWhat a startup hands its tax preparer for Form 1120: closed books, a balance sheet that ties to Schedule L, book-to-tax items, ownership and 1099s.
- Form 1120The federal income tax return for a C corporation. It's due on the 15th day of the fourth month after year end, so April 15 for a calendar-year company; Form 7004 extends the filing, not the payment, by six months.