Kickstart: A path forward for R&D tax credit?

A research and development tax credit may be on its way back, part of a bill that passed a U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee vote on Jan. 19.

The credit is part of a bipartisan, three-year plan developed by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, and Rep. Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican. The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 bill would be "a commonsense, bipartisan, bicameral tax framework that promotes the financial security of working families, boosts growth and American competitiveness, and strengthens communities and Main Street businesses," Wyden's office said in a news release.

The tax credit would "help ease the tax burden on America's job creators," the American Mold Builders Association said in a news release on the process.

AMBA says 77 percent of its members invested in R&D activities that would fall under the credit. Mold makers are "essential small businesses" directly affected, the Indianapolis-based trade group says. The tax credit expired in 2023.

"Restoring the immediate deduction for R&D expenses will help ensure that manufacturers can continue to utilize this vital tax provision critical to competitiveness, innovation and U.S. jobs," AMBA Managing Director Kym Conis said.

The proposal, of course, must still make it through Congress, which has been a difficult process the past few years.

Another big issue facing small and midsized businesses: hiring and retaining workers. And one of the best ways to keep workers may be for businesses to subsidize child care.

The U.S. Department of Labor's National Database of Childcare Prices says the average family with kids requiring child care can expect to pay between 8 percent and 19 percent of their household income toward those costs for just one child.

You can search your own region's costs from the database here. In Akron, Ohio, for instance, expect to pay $10,099 per year for one toddler. The price increases by about $1,000 for an infant.

Our sister paper Crain's Cleveland Business has a package of stories this week on the high cost of child care and what it means to businesses. It notes that more than a third of parents with children younger than age 5 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, exited the labor force, were demoted or experienced work disruption because of child care. Advocates are calling for employees to consider subsidizing child care costs — a benefit for both workers and employers since it reduces turnover, Ben Friedrich, associate professor of strategy at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, told Crain's.

"Not too many companies offer them, but this would be the business case," he said.

BASF and clothing maker Zara have joined forces for a jacket made with what the companies say is the first textile-to-textile recycling of nylon 6.

BASF markets the chemically recycled industrial scrap as "loopamid," our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes.

Spain-based Zara then used loopamid for all of the parts in the jacket: fabric, buttons, hooks, loops and zipper.