The Internal Revenue Service recently published new interim guidance for companies to use when amortizing research or experimental expenditures — a new requirement for tax year 2022 created in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was passed more than five years ago, many businesses seem to be just discovering the effects of one of its sections this tax season. The law stipulated that, for tax years beginning in 2022, companies could no longer choose to expense their entire “research and experimentation” costs in one year and must instead amortize those cost over five years (with a half year look-back).