What does it take to defend a tax credit once the IRS decides to take a closer look?

Andrew Brewster is a Senior Director at Alvarez and Marsal Tax in Washington DC, where he leads work across research and development tax credits and IRS examination defense. Before A&M, Andrew clerked in the Department of Justice Tax Division, interned at the IRS, and spent nearly a decade at Deloitte building his expertise in R&D credit studies from the inside of both the government and the profession.

Together they explore what actually qualifies as research activity under Section 41, the documentation mistakes that turn a clean credit claim into an audit problem, and how the R&D incentives landscape keeps shifting as states and the federal government change their rules. They also get into what it is like to sit across the table from the IRS after having worked inside it, and how that perspective changes the way Andrew approaches examination defense today.

Andrew has spent his career on both sides of the tax incentives equation, from interpreting the rules at the DOJ and IRS to helping companies claim what they are actually owed at Deloitte and now A&M. Tune in for a conversation about what it really takes to build a credible, defensible tax incentives practice in a field where the rules rarely stay still.