The R&D Credit Coalition has sent a letter to President Obama calling on him to include a permanent R&D tax credit in his Fiscal Year 2012 budget. The argument:

On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of employees represented by the companies and related trade organizations, which comprise the R&D Credit Coalition, thank you for your strong and continued support for the research and development (R&D) tax credit. We urge you to include a strengthened, permanent R&D tax credit in your fiscal 2012 budget request to Congress. Your fiscal 2011 budget contained a proposal to permanently extend the current R&D credit.

The credit is set to expire again on December 31, 2011, and the Coalition is actively working to permanently extend and strengthen the credit by increasing the rate for the Alternative Simplified Credit. We believe that a strengthened, permanent credit will help maintain the United States as a world leader in R&D – a vital engine for the creation of high quality jobs that will support economic recovery in our nation. A recent OECD report on research tax incentives ranked the United States 24th in terms of competitiveness.

The letter is signed the coalition’s leadership: Janet C. Boyd of The Dow Chemical Company, Ann Taylor of sanofi-aventis U.S. Inc., Catherine T. Porter of Agilent Technologies, Inc., and Monica M. McGuire of the National Association of Manufacturers. Monica is executive secretary of the coalition.

Good report on the state of the play, or no-play, of the research and development tax credit by Brian Wingfield at Forbes, “No Developments.”

It’s favored by business groups, celebrated by presidential candidates and loved by politicians on both sides of the aisle, yet it can’t grab Washington’s attention.It’s the research and development tax credit, which lawmakers let expire at the end of last year in a partisan dispute over tax issues and how to pay for them. Businesses say that without it, other countries like Canada, Ireland and Australia–which have attractive R&D tax incentives–will lure research jobs away from the U.S.

“It’s a motherhood and apple pie issue,” says Monica McGuire, who’s lobbying for the credit on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers and the much broader R&D Credit Coalition.

 The website of the R&D Credit Coalition is InvestinAmericasFuture.org.