11th Circuit Affirms Geosyntec Holding

On January 29, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the holding of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Geosyntec Consultants v. United States of America. Geosyntec Consultants (“Geosyntec”) specializes in “environmental studies and cleanup, infrastructure design and engineering, and natural resources assessment and restoration.” Geosyntec filed suit in District Court after the IRS disallowed Geosyntec’s claim for the R&D credit. The District Court ruled that research Geosyntec conducted pursuant to fixed price contracts was not funded but it excluded research conducted under cost plus contracts subject to a maximum (“capped contracts”) as funded. Geosyntec appealed the District Court’s ruling on two of the three capped contracts at issue. The 11th Circuit affirmed the lower court and held that research Geosyntec conducted under the capped contracts was funded because the contracts did not make payment to Geosyntec contingent on the success of its research.