Surely the section 174 changes in Trump's tax bill have to be a part of this as well. Since engineer salaries now have to be deducted as an expense amortized over 5 years rather than in the same year they were incurred, smaller companies with revenue that may not be profitable will still be taxed as if they are.

https://www.bdo.com/insights/tax/current-state-of-r-d-tax-po...