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Tech & Innovation·August 14, 2026·1 min read

The operational gap in R&D Tax: Where good claims break down

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The R&D tax gap is increasingly operational, not conceptual — companies can articulate innovation but can’t evidence it cleanly enough for tax authorities. If you’re spending heavily on AI or deep tech, tighten your documentation and data trails now or you’ll leave money on the table when the audits arrive.

Tech & Innovation

In Q2, "other income", mostly from investment gains, at Amazon and Alphabet totaled ~$121B after taxes and made up 66% and 71%, respectively, of profits

When ~66–71% of quarterly profit comes from investment gains—much of it tied to AI bets—you can’t read Big Tech earnings as a clean signal of operating health. Operators should separate core-margin trends from mark-to-market noise before benchmarking, and assume AI-adjacent equity swings will keep distorting comps.