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Your AI team's engineering work may be a federal tax credit you haven't claimed yet
Model development, training runs, novel data pipelines, and evaluation are often strong qualifying research. A licensed CPA reviews your QuickBooks Online, identifies the wages, contractor costs, and compute that likely qualify, and shows you the credit a study would support. Even pre-profit startups can claim up to $500,000 a year against payroll taxes.
Free and no-obligation. A licensed CPA does the review, not software. We tell you what we find either way.
Most AI companies leave the R&D credit on the table without realizing it
The work clearly qualifies. The problem is almost always how it shows up in the books. Here is what we usually see in QuickBooks Online, and what it should look like before you file.
What we usually find in the books
Engineering payroll sits in one lump with no split between qualified research and routine work
Cloud and compute spend is buried in a general software or subscriptions account, so none of it is tied to research
Contractor costs are coded inconsistently, so the 65% that can count never gets counted
No contemporaneous documentation linking specific projects and experiments to the people and dollars behind them
The payroll-tax offset is missed entirely, so a pre-profit startup assumes the credit is worthless to them
What it should look like before you file
Qualified US engineering wages identified and separated from non-qualifying time
Cloud and compute used for qualified research broken out and mapped to specific projects
US contractor costs reviewed with the 65% inclusion applied correctly
A clean project-by-project record of the technical work, ready to support the credit if questioned
The Qualified Small Business payroll-tax offset claimed so the credit becomes cash, even before you turn a profit
What a licensed CPA shows you in 20 to 30 minutes
Your numbers should tell you which jobs make money and when cash gets tight. We handle the books, the job costing, and the forecast so every bid, draw, and payroll Friday is backed by real financials.
We review your QuickBooks Online and point to the specific wages, contractor costs, supplies, and compute that most likely qualify as research expenses, with an estimate a study would confirm.
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If you are under 5 years old with under $5M in gross receipts, we check whether you qualify for the payroll-tax offset of up to $500,000 a year, so the credit lowers your FICA bill instead of waiting on profit.
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Beyond the credit, we flag the few bookkeeping and current-year Section 174 issues most likely affecting your taxes, margin, or runway, and tell you exactly what to fix first.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Often, yes. Developing and training models, running experiments where the result is uncertain, building novel data pipelines, and serious evaluation work tend to be strong qualifying research under IRC Section 41. The deciding factor is your specific facts, which is what the review and a study establish.
No. If your company is under 5 years old with under $5M in gross receipts, you can elect to apply up to $500,000 of the credit per year against employer payroll (FICA) taxes. That turns the credit into cash even before you owe federal income tax.
Qualified research expenses generally include qualified US engineering wages, 65% of US contractor costs, supplies, and cloud or compute used for qualified research. We review your QuickBooks Online to identify which of your costs fit and estimate the credit a study would support.
We do not promise a number, because an honest figure depends on a study. For early-stage companies the first-year Alternative Simplified Credit is roughly 6% of qualified research expenses, and it can be higher with history or the regular method. The free review gives you a grounded estimate, then we document and file the actual amount.
As your CPA firm we identify the qualifying work in QuickBooks Online, document it, handle your current-year Section 174 treatment, and file the credit with your return. For anything outside accounting and tax, such as legal questions, we coordinate rather than perform it. A licensed CPA does the work, not software.
The AI Company R&D Tax Credit Checklist
Twelve yes or no questions that tell you in five minutes whether you are likely sitting on an unclaimed federal R&D credit, and whether you can turn it into cash this year. Enter your email and we will send it over.
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