Mississippi Skills Training / R&D Tax Credit

Mississippi Skills Training / R&D Tax Credit

Provides Mississippi businesses tax credits for research employees and qualified innovation spending.

Eligibility · United States · US-MS

Mississippi offers two complementary research and development incentives administered through the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) ecosystem. The Research and Development Skills Tax Credit provides a $1,000 state income tax credit per qualifying R&D employee per year for a five-year period, giving businesses a predictable, headcount-based credit for building and retaining research workforces in the state. Separately, the SMART Business Act Rebate Program delivers a 25% rebate of total qualified research costs for eligible companies, with administration handled by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) — making it a university-partnered mechanism rather than a standalone DOR claim.

Both programs target for-profit businesses conducting qualified research activities within Mississippi, and both operate as statutory entitlements rather than competitive grant rounds, meaning there is no application deadline or allocation cap in the traditional sense. The credits are claimed through the standard Mississippi income tax filing process. The MDA's broader incentive catalog — which also includes MFLEX (Mississippi's Flexible Tax Incentive), the Standard Property Tax Exemption, and sales/use tax exemptions — positions these R&D-specific programs as part of a multi-lever tax incentive package that qualifying companies may stack.

The Mississippi R&D incentives are most accessible to companies with existing or planned in-state R&D headcount. The Skills Tax Credit rewards employment scale over time (up to five years), while the SMART Business Act Rebate rewards total research spending and benefits from university collaboration. For-profit companies, qualifying research organizations, and universities are in scope; nonprofits and individual applicants are not eligible. The MDA can be reached at (601) 359-3449 or (800) 360-3323 for program verification.