Software startups with good engineering data in Jira or GitHub should look at Neo.Tax first: it builds the claim from that data and charges a flat annual subscription, not a percentage of the credit. Boast suits companies that want a managed service with audit defense included and also claim Canada's SR&ED credit. If you already use Pilot, Fondo, Kruze or Inkle for bookkeeping and tax, adding their R&D credit service is usually simplest because they already have your payroll and ledger data. Qualified small businesses can use up to $500,000 a year of the credit against payroll taxes, and from tax year 2026 most claimants must complete the new Section G of Form 6765.
Neo.Tax connects to Jira, GitHub, Asana, payroll and the general ledger, then uses the engineering activity to identify qualifying projects, estimate time spent and draft the project narratives the IRS expects. That cuts the interviews and timesheets that make traditional studies painful. It is priced as a flat annual subscription tiered by the number of R&D employees, plus a one-time implementation fee, and says explicitly that it does not take a percentage of the credit. It also handles Section 174 and ASC 350-40 software capitalization. That breadth matters now that the rules have changed twice in four years.
Pricing: Neo.Tax states that pricing is a flat annual subscription tiered by R&D-employee population, plus a one-time implementation fee. Pricing is not a percentage of the credit. ASC 350-40 and dedicated single-tenant hosting may be priced as separate annual additions. Capterra lists pricing as not provided by the vendor; its earlier product description says users could prepare a federal R&D credit themselves or with team guidance.
Uses Jira, GitHub, payroll and ledger signals instead of relying primarily on year-end surveys.
Combines R&D credit, Section 174 and ASC 350-40 outputs in one engineering-data workflow.
Provides ticket-level evidence, workpapers and audit-log lineage for review and audit support.
Pricing is quote-based and includes a one-time implementation fee rather than a published self-serve rate.
The current enterprise workflow may be more than very small companies need for a simple credit claim.
Routine work still depends on the quality and completeness of connected engineering and payroll data.
AI-assisted R&D tax credit claims for innovative companies filing in the US and Canada.
Boast combines software that pulls data from Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Linear, QuickBooks, NetSuite, ADP and Gusto with in-house tax and technical specialists who prepare the claim. It has worked with more than 2,000 companies in the US and Canada and includes its AuditShield audit support at no extra charge. It also prepares Canadian SR&ED claims, which makes it a natural pick for companies with engineers on both sides of the border. Pricing is quoted per engagement. A financing option, QuickFund, advances part of the expected credit, on separate terms with interest.
Pricing: Boast provides custom quotes rather than a public subscription price or tier schedule. Its engagement covers claim preparation and expert support, with AuditShield included at no additional charge. QuickFund financing carries separate terms and interest.
Combines AI data analysis with in-house tax and technical review rather than leaving claim interpretation entirely to software.
Supports US federal, state, Canadian SR&ED and provincial incentive workflows in one engagement.
Connects to engineering, project-management, accounting and payroll systems to reduce manual evidence collection.
Pricing is custom and percentage-based, so the total fee can rise with the size of a successful claim.
There is no public self-serve plan or published starting price for buyers to compare.
The most useful integrations and coverage depend on the company’s systems, jurisdiction and claim facts.
Outsourced bookkeeping, business tax filing, and finance support for startups and small businesses.
Pilot offers an end-to-end R&D credit service alongside its bookkeeping and tax products for more than 3,000 companies. It identifies qualifying expenses, prepares the documentation, files and then coordinates with your payroll provider to apply the payroll tax offset. Its fee is based on the credit you actually receive, so you pay nothing if there is no credit. Pilot already holds your categorized expenses, which reduces the data gathering that drives most of the work in a credit study.
Pricing: Essentials starts at $99 per month for businesses with up to $100,000 in monthly expenses. Core is custom-priced, with pricing varying according to monthly expenses, connected institutions, bills, invoices, and support needs; Pilot Tax starts at $1,000 per year for a single-member LLC and must be purchased with bookkeeping. Essentials is monthly, while Core and other services may use annual or custom billing.
Combines automated transaction processing with human support and review.
Offers bookkeeping, tax preparation, CFO services, and selected back-office work in one provider.
Connects to a broad set of banks, payroll systems, payment processors, and business tools.
Pilot Tax is not included in bookkeeping and must be purchased with Pilot Bookkeeping.
Pilot does not currently file personal income taxes.
Pricing can rise with expenses, institutions, bills, invoices, and support needs.
Fondo packages bookkeeping, federal and state corporate tax, Delaware franchise tax and R&D credit claims for startups, and says it has served more than 2,000 of them. Bookkeeping starts at $950 a year and TaxPass, its tax filing package, at $1,450, with add-ons from $500. For a seed-stage company with one or two engineers on payroll, a bundled provider is often the cheapest way to make sure the credit is claimed at all.
Pricing: Public pricing starts at $950/year annual bookkeeping, $1,198/quarter quarterly bookkeeping and $399/month promotional monthly bookkeeping. TaxPass starts at $1,450/year promotional pricing; add-ons start at $500 each.
Combines bookkeeping, tax filing and R&D credit work.
Offers annual, quarterly and monthly close options.
Publishes concrete entry pricing.
Published fit is strongest for Delaware C-Corps.
Additional state, international and R&D work costs extra.
Annual bookkeeping closes books only once per year.
Outsourced accounting, tax, CFO and finance operations for venture-backed startups.
Kruze is a CPA firm that works mostly with venture-backed startups and offers R&D credits next to accrual bookkeeping, tax preparation, state tax and CFO services. A CPA firm is useful when the credit interacts with other judgment calls, such as state credits, Section 174A elections or how R&D spending shows up in your financial statements for investors. Pricing is quoted.
Pricing: Basic bookkeeping costs $650–$850 per month, Founder Timesaver costs $850–$1,500 per month, and Premium is priced according to complexity. Packages include a dedicated accounting manager and monthly call, while onboarding is a separate one-time fee per entity. Tax returns and additional services require a tailored quote or calculator.
Published fixed-fee bookkeeping packages start at $650 per month.
Combines bookkeeping, tax, R&D credits and fractional CFO support.
Packages include a dedicated accounting manager and monthly call.
Premium pricing and tax-return pricing are not publicly specified.
A one-time onboarding fee applies per entity, with extra fees possible for corrections.
The service is an assisted engagement rather than self-serve accounting software.
Inkle combines accounting software with bookkeeping and tax services, and covers federal and state filings, Delaware franchise tax, 1099s, the information returns required for foreign-owned US companies and R&D credits. Founders based in India, Europe or elsewhere who incorporated a Delaware C-corp often need all of these at once. Basic accounting is free, Standard is $30 a month, bookkeeping starts at $49 a month, and tax services are priced separately.
Pricing: Basic accounting is free and supports up to two connected banks. Standard costs $30 per month, while bookkeeping starts at $49 per month and scales with transaction volume and complexity. Tax filings, registered-agent services, mailroom services and other specialist work are priced separately, with some filing fees published as flat annual amounts.
Links bookkeeping records directly to tax and compliance workflows.
Offers free Basic accounting and a $30 Standard tier.
Combines automation with dedicated-bookkeeper support.
Primarily designed for US entities and obligations.
Basic accounting is limited to two connected banks.
The federal research credit has existed since 1981. For startups it became valuable in 2016, when Congress let qualified small businesses use the credit against payroll taxes instead of income tax they do not yet owe. The Inflation Reduction Act doubled that offset to $500,000 a year from 2023, split between the employer's share of Social Security and Medicare.
Then the treatment of research spending itself changed twice. From 2022, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act forced companies to capitalize research and experimental costs, including most software development salaries, and amortize them over five years for US research and 15 years for foreign research. Many profitable startups suddenly owed income tax despite reinvesting everything. In July 2025 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act reversed that for domestic research. New Section 174A lets companies deduct US research costs immediately again for tax years beginning after December 31, 2024.
The result in 2026: an engineering-heavy startup can deduct its US development costs in full and claim a credit worth roughly 6 to 14 percent of qualified spending, either against income tax or, if it qualifies, against payroll tax. For a seed-stage company with $1.5 million in engineering salaries, a payroll credit in the low six figures is realistic.
What counts as qualified research
The IRS applies a four-part test to each business component, such as a product, feature, process or piece of software:
Permitted purpose. The work aims to create a new or improved function, performance, reliability or quality.
Technological in nature. It relies on computer science, engineering, physical or biological sciences.
Elimination of uncertainty. At the start, you were uncertain about capability, method or design.
Process of experimentation. You evaluated alternatives through modeling, testing, prototyping or trial and error.
Qualifying costs are wages for people doing, directly supervising or directly supporting the research, supplies used in it, cloud computing costs for development environments in many cases, and 65 percent of amounts paid to US contractors for qualified research. Routine bug fixes after release, cosmetic changes, market research and work funded by a customer usually do not qualify.
The documentation is the hard part. The IRS wants to connect each dollar of wages to a business component and to the experimentation that happened. That is why the providers below compete mainly on how they collect evidence.
How we chose these six
We looked at the R&D credit providers and the bookkeeping firms offering credit studies in our tax directory. We weighted how evidence is collected (system integrations versus interviews and surveys), how the fee is structured, whether audit support is included, and fit for venture-backed startups. Pricing is as of October 2026.
Several providers outside our directory are often recommended: MainStreet, TaxTrex from Swanson Reed, and Clarus R+D. Large accounting firms also prepare studies for bigger claims.
Pricing models compared
Provider
Model
Notes
Neo.Tax
Flat annual subscription by R&D headcount, plus implementation
Not a percentage of the credit
Boast
Quoted per engagement
AuditShield included; QuickFund financing available
Pilot
Fee based on credit received
Pay only if you receive a credit
Fondo
Add-on to bookkeeping and TaxPass
Bookkeeping from $950/yr; TaxPass from $1,450
Kruze
Quoted
CPA firm
Inkle
Priced per service
Accounting from free; bookkeeping from $49/mo
Percentage-of-credit pricing is common in the market. It has one clear advantage: if there is no credit, you pay nothing. Its downside is that the fee grows with the claim, and incentives can push providers toward aggressive positions. Flat-fee models remove that incentive. Whichever you choose, ask who defends the claim if the IRS examines it and whether that is included.
Which provider fits which startup
Seed-stage, one to five engineers, using a startup bookkeeping firm. Use your bookkeeper's R&D service: Pilot, Fondo, Kruze or Inkle. The firm already has your payroll and expense data, and a bundled claim is cheap. Make sure the payroll tax election is on your return; it cannot be added later.
Series A or B software company with 20 or more engineers. Neo.Tax or Boast. At this size the credit is large enough that documentation quality matters, and Section G will apply once you exceed the small-claimant exception. Pulling evidence directly from Jira and GitHub is faster and more defensible than year-end interviews.
Engineers in the US and Canada. Boast prepares both US federal claims and Canada's SR&ED program, which has its own rules and documentation.
Foreign-founded Delaware C-corp. Inkle handles the R&D credit alongside the foreign-ownership filings, such as Form 5472, that these companies often miss.
The 2026 changes to plan for
Form 6765 Section G becomes mandatory. For tax years beginning after 2025, most claimants must report qualified research expenses by business component. Two groups are exempt: qualified small businesses electing the payroll tax offset, and companies filing an original return with $1.5 million or less in QREs and $50 million or less in gross receipts. If you do not qualify for an exemption, you need project-level tracking during the year, not a reconstruction after it ends. Tools that read engineering systems have a clear advantage here.
Section 174A transition. The retroactive election for small businesses to amend 2022 to 2024 returns had to be filed by July 6, 2026, according to IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-28 and the Taxpayer Advocate Service. If you missed it, the remaining unamortized domestic costs from those years can still be deducted over one or two years starting with 2025 returns. Talk to your tax preparer about which option produces the better cash outcome.
Foreign research is still amortized over 15 years. If you use offshore engineers or contractors, their costs do not get immediate expensing and do not count toward the federal credit. Track domestic and foreign spending separately.
Mistakes that get claims rejected
No contemporaneous documentation. Narratives written months later, without tickets, commits or design documents behind them, are the main reason examined claims fail.
Including all engineering salaries. Maintenance, support and routine work after release do not qualify. Reasonable allocation percentages are fine; 100 percent rarely is.
Missing the payroll election. It must be made on a timely filed original return. Many first-time claims lose a year this way.
Ignoring state credits. California, Massachusetts, Texas, Arizona and many other states have their own research credits with their own rules.
The federal credit for increasing research activities under Internal Revenue Code Section 41 rewards spending on qualified research: wages for people doing or directly supervising the work, supplies, and 65 percent of contract research. Software development often qualifies if it involves technical uncertainty and a process of experimentation. Most startups use the alternative simplified credit, which is roughly 6 to 14 percent of qualified spending depending on history.
Can startups use the R&D credit against payroll taxes?
Yes. A qualified small business, generally one with less than $5 million in gross receipts this year and no gross receipts more than five years ago, can elect to apply up to $500,000 a year of the credit against the employer's share of Social Security and Medicare taxes. The election is made on Form 6765 with a timely filed return, and the credit is used on Form 8974 with quarterly payroll filings.
What changed with Section 174 in 2025?
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, added Section 174A, which lets businesses deduct domestic research and experimental expenditures immediately for tax years beginning after December 31, 2024. Foreign research still has to be amortized over 15 years. Companies can also accelerate the remaining unamortized 2022 to 2024 domestic costs over one or two years.
Can small businesses still amend 2022 to 2024 returns for Section 174A?
Small businesses with average gross receipts of $31 million or less could elect to apply Section 174A retroactively, but amended returns had to be filed by July 6, 2026, or earlier if the normal refund deadline came first. That window has closed. The option to accelerate remaining unamortized amounts on current returns still exists.
What is Form 6765 Section G?
Section G asks for qualified research expenses by business component, meaning by product, process or software project, rather than as one total. It was optional for tax years beginning before 2026 and is required from 2026 onwards, except for qualified small businesses electing the payroll tax offset, and for original-return claimants with $1.5 million or less in QREs and $50 million or less in gross receipts.
How do R&D credit providers charge?
Three ways: a percentage of the credit (often between 10 and 30 percent in the market), a flat fee or subscription, or bundled into a bookkeeping and tax package. Percentage fees cost nothing if there is no credit but get expensive as claims grow. Flat fees reward larger claims. Always ask whether audit support is included.
How long do I have to claim the credit?
The payroll tax offset election must be made on a timely filed original return, including extensions. The income tax credit can generally be claimed on an amended return within the normal three-year refund window, but amended claims carry extra documentation requirements.
Prices and ratings come from each vendor's public pricing pages and review sites as of October 22, 2026. Vendors change pricing often, so confirm with a quote. Nothing here is tax or legal advice.
