The West Virginia R&D tax credit, explained
No, West Virginia does not have an active R&D tax credit for new research. Its old credit ended in 2014.
Last verified July 2026 against West Virginia State Tax Department guidance.
The short answer
Does West Virginia have an R&D tax credit? No, not for new research. West Virginia's Strategic Research and Development Tax Credit terminated for any qualified investment or expenditure made on or after January 1, 2014.
Where that leaves West Virginia startups
Before it ended, the credit equaled the greater of 3% of annual qualified research expenses or 10% of qualified research expenses exceeding a base amount, capped at a share of tax liability. Companies that earned credit before 2014 can still carry forward and use that legacy balance, but no company can generate new West Virginia R&D credit today.
For research happening now, West Virginia companies have no state credit to claim and rely entirely on the federal R&D credit.
How it stacks with the federal credit
With no active state credit, the full R&D tax benefit for a West Virginia company comes from the federal credit, worth roughly 6% to 10% of qualified spend. Startups under $5 million in revenue can apply up to $500,000 of it against payroll taxes each year.
Example: a Morgantown biotech startup with 13 employees and $1.3 million in qualified research wages and supplies could see a federal credit near $91,000 at a 7% effective rate. As a qualifying startup, the company could apply most of that directly against payroll tax deposits instead of waiting on West Virginia corporate net income tax liability.
Companies that were doing research in West Virginia before 2014 and still have unused legacy credit should keep tracking it separately with their CPA, since it follows different rules than anything available to new research today.
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Claiming the federal credit instead
Because West Virginia's R&D credit no longer accepts new claims, there is no current state form for new research. Companies with pre-2014 legacy credit use Schedule WV/SRDTC-1 to carry it forward.
The federal credit is claimed on Form 6765 with the company's federal return. Claimship prepares that study and package; the company's CPA files the federal return and the West Virginia corporate net income tax return separately.
Any West Virginia company doing qualifying product, software, or process development work today should look to the federal credit, since no state program is open to new research.
Official source: West Virginia State Tax Department.
Carryforward and deadlines
There are no new-claim deadlines to track for West Virginia's R&D credit, since the program is closed to new investment. Legacy carryforward amounts from before 2014 follow the terms set when they were originally earned.
The federal credit follows its own rules, generally up to 20 years of carryforward, with the payroll tax election made annually on the federal return.