The Research & Experimentation Tax Credit or R&D Tax Credit is a general business tax credit under Internal Revenue Code section 41 for companies that incur research and development (R&D) costs in the United States. The R&D Tax Credit was originally introduced in the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 sponsored by U.S. Representative Jack Kemp and U.S. Senator William Roth. Since the credit's original expiration date of December 31, 1985, the credit has expired eight times and has been extended fifteen times. The last extension expired on December 31, 2014. In 2015, Congress made permanent the research and development tax credit in a measure of the government spending bill.