Tax Taker
Platform to help startups in getting funded easily
Project overview
Tax Taker is Platform to help startups in getting funded easily. Quick and easy R&D Claims Built with high standards for performance, security, and intuitive user experiences, the platform is engineered to support mission-critical workflows and seamless scale.
What was the problem or pain point
Client Dilemma & Technical Bottleneck
TaxTaker empowers high-growth startups and tech companies to claim valuable R&D tax credits under IRS Section 41, unlocking hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual cash savings. Calculating R&D credits was traditionally a painful, months-long consulting nightmare involving binders of paperwork, manual timesheet auditing, and complex wage apportionments. Tech companies frequently missed out on credits or risked IRS audit penalties due to insufficient technical documentation linking software sprint tasks to qualifying research activities.
What we suggested to the client
Solid Sphere Architectural Recommendation
Solid Sphere recommended building an automated, software-driven R&D tax credit calculation and audit defense platform. We proposed automating the ingestion of payroll data from leading providers (Gusto, ADP, Rippling) and sprint development data from Jira and GitHub, paired with an automated qualification engine that maps software engineering tickets to IRS four-part test criteria, and automated Form 6765 tax credit package generation with digital signatures via DocuSign.
What made this project challenging
Demystifying complex federal and state R&D tax credit claiming for early-stage software startups
Extracting eligible engineering hours from GitHub commits, Jira tickets, and payroll records automatically
Generating IRS-audit-ready technical documentation and Form 6765 calculations
Securing sensitive payroll and cap table data with enterprise-grade encryption
What was implemented and how it was implemented
Step-by-Step Technical Execution
We built a modern web application using Next.js on the frontend and Python on the backend. We developed automated API connectors to payroll providers (Gusto, ADP, Quickbooks Payroll) to import employee W-2 wages and contractor expenses in seconds. We built an intelligent qualification assistant that connects to Jira and GitHub, analyzing commit logs, pull requests, and sprint epics to build defensible contemporaneous project documentation proving technological uncertainty and experimentation. Our Python tax calculation engine applies statutory wage cap limits, alternative simplified credit (ASC) calculations, and state-specific tax rules to determine the optimal credit payout. We integrated DocuSign to collect client signatures on completed IRS Form 6765 and Form 8974 packages, ready for CPA filing. The platform includes an audit defense vault that archives all supporting sprint evidence.
How we delivered
Engineered automated integrations with Gusto, Rippling, GitHub, and Jira to calculate qualified research wages
Built guided qualification wizard translating engineering sprints into IRS four-part test criteria
Developed algorithmic tax credit computation engine supporting payroll tax offset elections
Automated complete audit-ready study packet generation with certified CPA digital signatures
What did we use to implement it
Technology Stack & Technical Rationale
Next.js and TypeScript provided an intuitive, step-by-step credit qualification wizard for founders and CPAs. Python with Pandas powered complex payroll data transformation, IRS statutory calculation formulas, and automated tax form generation. PostgreSQL stored encrypted company data, sprint documentation, and tax filing packages. Payroll APIs (Gusto, ADP) automated wage ingestion. DocuSign API enabled seamless digital signing of IRS tax documents. AWS provided HIPAA/SOC2 compliant encrypted hosting.
Key outcomes
Over $50M in R&D tax credits claimed for tech startups
Average client credit refund between $40,000 and $250,000
100% IRS audit defense success rate
Reduced tax study completion time from 2 months to under 1 week
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