Fees paid to Earnd are typically 20% of the tax credits and incentives identified.
The onboarding process can usually be completed in under 15 minutes. Onboarding may be self-guided, driven by an intuitive series of questions with assistance from our Virtual Consultant. Or you can choose to schedule a live-person onboarding with one of our Customer Engagement Consultants. After onboarding, the largely automated process of collecting Incentive Study data and documentation begins.
We are highly sensitive to data security and encrypt all collected data in transit and at rest. While we engage in data analytics to improve our value add, we will never sell or rent customer identifiable data.
R&D tax credits are rarely pursued by CPAs since they require esoteric regulatory and tax knowledge.
No. Earnd will provide your accounting firm with the paperwork needed to incorporate our identified credits into your annual or quarterly tax filings. Our materials will include the calculation(s) details for you and your accountant’s review as well as forms detailing where and how the savings should be applied. Your current CPA will make your subsequent annual or quarterly filing or filings.
You do not need to be generating revenues to qualify. Qualifying U.S. companies may offset up to $250,000 per year in payroll tax liability for up to five years. Unused credits (amounts beyond the annual maximum) are carried forward and used to offset income taxes once you become profitable.
No. The majority of savings for startup and early-stage companies will be claimed against payroll taxes if you meet certain qualifications. These savings may reduce your associated gross payroll, allowing you to deploy more resources towards driving innovation faster. Once you become taxable, unused and newly identified savings may be applied to reduce your federal income taxes as you begin generating positive income. Our Incentive Studies and associated credit claims may even generate material savings if you pursue a strategic transaction prior to achieving profitability.
Your payment schedule will depend on the credits, stimuli, incentives and/or deductions being claimed. Certain credits may generate immediate savings when your CPA files your next return by reducing your payments due. Other credits may be applied in the quarter after your CPA files your next periodic return if you fulfill statutory qualifications. Yet other credits may be carried forward until a year-end when you have generated income.
If you are based in the U.S. and have research and development payroll costs in the U.S., you likely qualify. If you design, develop or improve software, products, processes, techniques or formulas, you probably qualify. If you’ve hired engineers, designers, scientists or other technicians in the U.S. to develop software, launch a new product or improve a process, you surely qualify. If you’ve hired contractors or a contract research organization (CRO) in the U.S. to develop software, launch a new product or improve a process, you probably qualify.
No. If you spend money on Qualified Research Expenses as defined by the IRS, you should be eligible for federal and most likely state credits as early as the first quarter after your next income tax return filing.
Historically, audit risk has been below 1% on original returns. This risk increases marginally on amended returns, so we advocate filing in conjunction with original returns when possible. That said, we will advise you on the considerations and implications once we process your unique data. We will further support you and your CPA if an IRS auditor (or state auditor) wants to review our calculations or the support documentation we utilized for the credit.
Yes. You may generally amend three years prior to the current tax year for federal and most state returns, although the rules vary by state.