R&D credit studies, assembled by agents and signed by you.

Which describes you?

AI agents build the study, the Section G detail and the Form 6765 workpapers from your client's records. You review, decide and sign. The client, the fee and the signature stay with your firm.

Founding pricing: 25% off year one for the first 10 firms.

Occams Advisory's licensed tax professionals use AI agents to prepare your company's R&D credit study, then review and sign it. You pay $2,500 to start and 18% of the credit you receive.

Who signs
You, always
Our share of your fee
None
How you pay
One annual licence
Who signs
A licensed tax professional
What you pay
$2,500 + 18% of the credit
What you send
Exports you already have
A sample study for tax year 2026, with illustrative figures. Payroll, ledger, Jira and GitHub records feed the agents. They propose 11 business components; 10 pass the four-part test, and 1 component and 1 wage estimate go to the practitioner. Section G coverage reaches 94% against the 80% requirement.

The R&D credit, by the numbersThe latest figures from U.S. government sources.

  • $189Bin federal R&D credits expected over fiscal years 2025 to 2029Joint Committee on Taxation, JCX-45-25, December 2025
  • $722Bspent on R&D performed by U.S. businesses in 2023National Science Foundation, NSF 25-353, September 2025
  • $381Min research credits small businesses claimed against payroll taxes for 2024Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, report 2026-408-012, April 2026

Built by Occams AdvisoryA U.S. advisory firm for founders and business owners.

  • Inc. 5000Fastest-growing private companies in America, 10 times since 2016
  • Financial TimesThe Americas' Fastest-Growing Companies, 6 times since 2020
  • FortuneAmerica's Most Innovative Companies, 2023 and 2026

Recognitions of Occams Advisory, the company behind TaxVantage. Source: occamsadvisory.com/awards.

Showing the page for

Why firms are bringing R&D work in house now

The credit is getting harder to document, clients are paying outsiders to do it, and the work fits naturally next to the return you already prepare.

TY 2026

Section G is no longer optional.

Above $1.5 million of qualified research expenses or $50 million of gross receipts, the business components behind at least 80% of the claim must be listed on the return, with their costs. Detail that used to wait for an examination now goes in at filing.

IRS news release IR-2025-99; Form 6765 instructions, February 2026.

20–40%

What clients pay specialists today.

Specialty credit firms commonly take a fifth or more of the credit on contingency, and some take 40%. With TaxVantage that engagement stays inside your firm, priced as you decide, and we take no share of it.

Published fees: 20% at the low end; 25 to 40% according to Swanson Reed's fee guide (April 2026).

38

States with their own credit.

Each state applies its own base, limits and carryforward rules. The platform calculates every applicable state from the same federal allocation, which is where hand-built studies most often leave money behind.

Aprio, August 2025. State rules change; confirm each state for the year.

Showing the page for

How much can your company claim?

The R&D tax credit pays back part of what your company spends developing or improving software, products and processes. Enter last year's spend for a rough number, then see exactly what you would pay us.

  • What you pay$2,500 to start, plus 18% of the credit you receive. On a $100,000 credit, you pay $20,500 in total.
  • What a study isThe file that backs up your claim: which projects qualify, whose time and which costs count, and your Section G schedule. Your CPA files it with your return on Form 6765.
  • Who signs itA licensed tax professional at Occams Advisory. Placeholder: names, licences and states of the signing professionals
  • What we need from youExports from your payroll, accounting and project tools. No long interviews. Placeholder: typical hours from your team
  • When you get the moneyAs a lower income tax bill on the return that claims it. Companies with under $5 million in revenue, and no more than five years of revenue, can instead use up to $500,000 a year against payroll taxes, starting the quarter after they file.
  • If the IRS has questionsWe help you answer them for any study we prepare. Placeholder: confirm scope
  • If we find no creditPlaceholder: what happens to the $2,500 if no credit is found

Estimate your credit

Include pay for the people doing the technical work, contractors, and materials used up in the work.

Estimated federal credit
$60,000 to $80,000
Our fee ($2,500 + 18%)
$13,300 to $16,900
What you keep
$46,700 to $63,100

A rough range: the federal credit is usually about 6 to 8% of this spend. State credits are extra. Your study sets the real number.

Seven agents do the assembly. One practitioner makes the calls.

Each agent has a narrow job, works from source records rather than surveys, and hands anything that needs professional judgment to youa licensed tax professional, with the evidence attached.

  1. Agent 1

    Intake

    Reads payroll, ledger, time and project exports in whatever form the client has, and normalizes them into one dataset.

    Hands off when a file is incomplete or inconsistent

  2. Agent 2

    Scoping

    Proposes business components from tickets, repositories, specifications and project codes, and links people to the work they did.

    Hands off when component boundaries are ambiguous

  3. Agent 3

    Qualification

    Tests each component against the four-part test and records the uncertainty, the process of experimentation and the evidence for each.

    Hands off when a component is close to the line

  4. Agent 4

    Allocation

    Splits wages across direct research, supervision and support, maps supplies and cloud costs, and applies the 65% limit to contract research.

    Hands off when an allocation rests on an estimate

  5. Agent 5

    Section G builder

    Builds the business component table line by line, checks the 80% coverage rule and the 50-component cap, and keeps it in step with the calculation.

    Hands off when coverage falls short

  6. Agent 6

    Narrative and evidence

    Drafts technical narratives for each component and links every figure in the study to the record it came from.

    Hands off when evidence for a claim is thin

  7. Agent 7

    Reviewer

    Checks the whole package for internal consistency, prior-year variances and common examination triggers before it reaches youthe professional.

    Hands off every finding, with its reason

  8. YouYour tax professional

    The practitioner

    Decide every flagged item, adjust what you disagree with, choose the elections, and sign. Nothing leaves the platform without your approval.A licensed tax professional at Occams Advisory decides every flagged item, chooses the elections and signs your study. Nothing is final without their approval.

    Final authority on every figure and every word

The agents prepare. You decide and sign.

The line between software and professional judgment is drawn deliberately, and it never moves.

What the platform does

Everything that is gathering, mapping and drafting

  • Collect and normalize client records from exports or connected systems
  • Propose and test business components against the four-part test
  • Allocate wages, supplies, cloud and contract research
  • Build Section G and keep it consistent with the calculation
  • Calculate the federal credit and every applicable state credit
  • Draft narratives and keep a complete, timestamped evidence trail

What you do

Everything that is judgment, responsibility and relationship

  • Agree scope and fee with the client
  • Decide every item the agents route to you
  • Choose the method and elections
  • Review and adjust the final calculation
  • Sign the return as preparer of record
  • Own the client relationship from first call to examination

TaxVantage never prepares or signs a tax return. Every study is reviewed and signed by the licensed practitioner who holds the engagement.

How one study moves through the platform

Five steps from a new engagement to a signed study, with the agents doing the assembly and you making every call that needs a professional.Five steps from a first call to a signed study. The agents do the assembly; a licensed tax professional makes every call that needs judgment.

  1. Create the client, set the tax years, and send a secure portal link under your firm's name.A short call confirms whether your work is likely to qualify. Nothing is billed until you approve the engagement.

  2. The client gives §7216 consent, then uploads exports or connects systems. No templates to fill in.You give the §7216 consent the rules require, then upload exports from payroll, accounting and project tools. No templates to fill in.

  3. A complete first draft is produced once the data is in, with open questions routed to you or the client.The agents build a complete first draft once the data is in, and send open questions to your tax professional or to you.

  4. Instead of reading a two-hundred-page draft, you see only the questions that need a professional, each with the records behind it. Decide the queue, adjust anything you disagree with, and export the forms, study and workpapers.An Occams Advisory tax professional decides each flagged item from the records behind it, then signs the study. You approve the final numbers.

  5. The evidence trail is organized by business component, so an information request is answered from records you already hold.Your CPA files Form 6765 with your return. If the IRS asks questions, the evidence is already organized by project. Placeholder: examination support scope for direct studies

Sample study  Client 0417Illustrative
Harbor & Pine CPAsTo: finance@client0417.example

Upload your 2026 R&D records

We are preparing your research credit study. Use our secure portal to give consent and upload your exports.

Open the secure portal
  • Client 0417, Inc.Tax year 2026, federal and stateEngagement open
  • Occams AdvisoryR&D credit study, tax year 2026Ready for your approval
  • Fee$2,500 to start, plus 18% of the credit you receive
  • BillingNothing is billed until you approve the engagement
  • Your tax professionalLicensed, at Occams AdvisoryAssigned
Payroll export
214 people, 26 pay periods
General ledger
38 accounts mapped
Jira
3,412 tickets
GitHub
27 code repositories
Section G draft, built by the agents7 min 21 s
Sample Section G business components and qualified research expenses
Business component QREs ($) Status
Claims routing engine v3 451,200 Pass
Real-time fraud scoring model 437,950 Pass
Mobile adjuster app 251,200 Pass
Document OCR pipeline 221,070 Pass
Partner API gateway 139,000 Your callFor review
Four further components 294,000 Pass
9 of 11 components cover94%
0%80% required

Total QREs $1,908,760Method ASCFederal credit before review $96,180

Waiting for your reviewWith your tax professionalFederal credit $96,180

Does the Partner API gateway meet the process of experimentation requirement?

14 tickets describe evaluating three authentication designs (API-212, API-219); load-test logs for two alternatives; 4 engineers, 1,920 hours.

Treat the engineering director's time as supervision of qualified research?

The calendar shows weekly design reviews on 6 of 9 qualifying components; payroll has no time codes. Suggested allocation 40%, based on meeting share.

2 decisions open
Information request: Claims routing engine v3Answered
  • Technical uncertainty22 tickets on routing-rule designs, linked to the narrative
  • Process of experimentationTest results for three rule engines
  • People and time14 engineers, with payroll lines for each
  • Qualified research expenses$451,200 traced to payroll and the ledger
Evidence pack ready to sendExport PDF
Placeholder: 60-second recording of a real, anonymized studyPlaceholder: median minutes from upload to first draft, and practitioner hours per study

See it run on one of your files.See what your company could claim.

On a 30-minute partner call we run an anonymized sample study end to end. Then bring one of your own files under a confidentiality agreement.Get a rough range in a minute, then start your study. Nothing is billed until you approve the engagement.

From Occams Advisory, recognized by Inc. 5000, the Financial Times and Fortune.

Your clients see your firm. Only your firm.

At the Firm and White-Label Enterprise tiers, every deliverable, portal screen and client email carries your name. Type yours to see the study cover.

Branding level
Brand colour
Book a partner call

On the call, we run a sample study under your firm's name.

Prepared for client review
Confidential

Research Credit Study

Tax year 2026, federal and state

Taxpayer
Client 0417, Inc.
Prepared by
Harbor & Pine CPAs
Method
Alternative simplified credit
Components
9 reported in Section G
  1. 1. Executive summary
  2. 2. Company and technical overview
  3. 3. Business components
  4. 4. Four-part test analysis
  5. 5. Qualified research expenses
  6. 6. Section G schedule
  7. 7. Credit calculation
  8. 8. State credits
  9. 9. Evidence index
  10. 10. Practitioner sign-off

Harbor & Pine CPAs, research credit practice

Preview of a study cover. It updates with the firm name, branding level and colour you choose.

Section G, explained and checked

For tax years beginning after December 31, 2025, Section G of Form 6765 asks for business component detail on the face of the return. Here is what it requires, and a quick way to tell whether it applies.From 2026 tax years, most companies claiming the credit must list each research project (the IRS calls them business components) and its costs in Section G of Form 6765. We build it as part of your study. Check whether it applies to you.

80%
Reported business components must account for at least 80 percent of total qualified research expenses.
50
Reporting is capped at 50 business components, starting from the largest.
3 ways
Wages are reported by component and split across direct research, supervision and support.
2027
The first filing season it is required, for 2026 returns.

Sources: IRS news release IR-2025-99 (October 2025) and the Form 6765 instructions (February 2026).

Is the credit claimed on an originally filed return?Is this the original return, not an amendment?
Are total QREs across the controlled group above $1.5 million?Are qualifying research costs above $1.5 million?
Are average annual gross receipts above $50 million?Are average yearly gross receipts above $50 million?
Is it a qualified small business electing the payroll tax offset?Is this a small business using the credit against payroll taxes?
Section G is optional.

Qualified research expenses are at or below $1.5 million and gross receipts at or below $50 million on an original return. Completing it anyway can strengthen the file.

A screening aid, not a determination. Confirm against the Form 6765 instructions for the tax year.

Four ways to handle an R&D client

Most firms do one of the first three today. Here is how they compare on the things a practice owner cares about.

How four approaches to R&D credit work compare
Question Refer to a specialist Build it in spreadsheets Per-company software TaxVantage licence
Who owns the client Shared, often lost You Often the software vendor You
Who keeps the fee The specialist, with a referral share to you You The vendor charges the client directly You, in full
Cost basis Commonly 20 to 40% of the credit Staff hours Per company, per year One annual licence for the firm
Section G handling The specialist's process Manual and time-consuming Varies Built and checked automatically
Your brand on deliverables No Yes No Yes, from the Firm tier
Who signs You, on someone else's work You Varies You, on work you reviewed line by line

Swipe the table sideways to compare all four.

One annual licence, paid upfront

Priced on how many studies your firm runs, never on the size of your clients' credits, and we take no share of your fee. A study is one entity for one tax year: federal, every applicable state and Section G. Entities with more than 250 employees carrying QREs count as two studies.

Prepay
Two-year prepayment takes 10% off both years
Founding partners

25% off year one and the same price in year two, plus your first live study reviewed by a specialist at no charge, in return for a published case study. Open to the first 10 firms for three months from launch.

Book a partner call

Solo

For a practitioner adding R&D to a small book

$6,000

per year, 5 studies included

$1,200 per included study
  • Additional studies $1,500
  • 2 practitioner seats
  • Client portal and consent flow
  • Section G builder
Start with Solo

Practice

For firms with a handful of R&D clients

$18,000

per year, 20 studies included

$900 per included study
  • Additional studies $1,100
  • 5 practitioner seats
  • Co-branded deliverables
  • Guided setup
Choose Practice

Firm

For firms building a credits practice

$42,000

per year, 60 studies included

$700 per included study
  • Additional studies $850
  • 15 practitioner seats
  • Your brand on every deliverable
  • 5 specialist reviews, SSO, training
Choose Firm
White label

Enterprise

For platforms, PE-backed groups and credit specialists

$100,000

per year, 200 studies included

$500 per included study
  • Additional studies $600
  • Unlimited seats and offices
  • Full white label on your domain
  • 20 specialist reviews, API, named lead
Talk to us about Enterprise
Compare every feature 13 rows across the four licences
Full feature comparison by licence
Feature Solo Practice Firm Enterprise
Annual licence $6,000 $18,000 $42,000 $100,000
Studies included 5 20 60 200
Additional studies $1,500 $1,100 $850 $600
Practitioner seats 2 5 15 Unlimited
Deliverables carry TaxVantage branding Your firm and TaxVantage Your firm's brand Your brand only, your domain
Client portal and §7216 consent Included Included Included, your brand Included, fully white-labeled
Section G builder and checker Included Included Included Included
State credit calculations Included Included Included Included
Specialist second review $750 per study $750 per study 5 included, then $750 20 included, then $600
Multi-office administration No No No Yes
Single sign-on No No Yes Yes
API access No No No Yes
Onboarding Self-serve Guided setup Guided setup and team training Named partner lead

$750 per study

Specialist second review

A TaxVantage tax specialist reviews the study before you sign. Advisory only; the decisions remain yours.

Quoted per matter

Examination support

Help assembling responses to IRS information requests, working alongside the practitioner of record.

Free

Section G checker and estimates

Unlimited screenings and preliminary credit estimates for prospects, on every tier and for non-licensees.

Unused studies roll forward for twelve months, so a slow season never costs you capacity.

Upgrade at any time. The unused portion of your current licence is credited toward the new tier.

Take the sample study's $96,180 credit. A specialist charging 20 to 40% would take $19,236 to $38,472 of it. On Practice, the platform costs $900 per included study, and you set your own fee.

Model your firm's economics

Enter your volume and the fee you charge. The calculator picks the lowest-cost tier.

Your fee is your decision and your engagement. Use what you charge now or plan to.

Apply discounts

Practice fits best

From 42 studies a year, Firm costs less.

Annual licence
$18,000
Additional studies
5 × $1,100 = $5,500
Discounts
None
Total platform cost
$23,500
Cost per study
$940
Studies to cover the licence
3 of 25
Study revenue at your fee
$200,000
Margin before review time
$176,500 (88%)
Platform costYour margin

Excludes optional specialist reviews. Discounts apply to the licence and additional studies.

From signed licence to first signed study

The onboarding plan for founding partners, built so your first R&D client is on the platform before busy season.

  1. Week 1

    Licence and setup

    Seats created, branding applied, consent language reviewed against your engagement letter.

  2. Week 2

    Practitioner training

    A working session on the review queue, elections and Section G, using an anonymized sample file.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    First live client

    Your first engagement runs with a TaxVantage specialist alongside, at no charge for the review.

  4. Ongoing

    Pipeline from your book

    Run the Section G checker and estimates across your existing clients to find the R&D work already there.

Built for client data you hold under §7216Built for the payroll and tax data you share

Your clients trust you with payroll and return information. The platform is designed so you can answer confidently when they ask how it is handled.You are trusting us with payroll and tax information. This is how the platform handles it.

  • Consent before upload

    The portal captures the §7216 consent your engagement needsthe rules require before any return information is shared.

  • One client, one purpose

    A client's data is used only to prepare that client's study and is never used to train shared models.

  • Every access logged

    Access is role-based, and you can seethe platform records who opened which record and when.

  • Encrypted throughout

    Data is encrypted in transit and at rest; exports leave the platform only on yourthe practitioner's instruction.

  • Retention you control

    Set how long each engagement's records are kept, in line with your firm's retention policy.

  • No outreach to your clients

    TaxVantage never markets to your clients. Portal messages go out under your firm's name.

Ask a tax professional how your data is handled

SOC 2: Placeholder: SOC 2 audit plan and target date

The people behind the platform

Founded by the team behind Occams Advisory, with tax, technology and finance leadership held to one standard of review.

Questions practitioners ask firstQuestions founders ask first

If yours is not here, a partner call is the fastest way to an answer.If yours isn't here, call +1 443-720-2000.

Who signs the return, and who is responsible for it?

You are. The licensed practitioner who holds the engagement reviews, approves and signs. TaxVantage provides software and optional technical review; it never prepares or signs a return and is never the preparer of record.

What does the licence cost?

There are four annual licences, paid upfront: Solo at $6,000 with 5 studies included, Practice at $18,000 with 20, Firm at $42,000 with 60, and Enterprise at $100,000 with 200. Additional studies cost $1,500, $1,100, $850 and $600 respectively. Pricing depends on how many studies your firm runs, never on the size of your clients' credits, and TaxVantage takes no share of the fee you charge. Prepaying two years takes 10% off both years.

How should we price R&D studies to our clients?

That is your decision and your professional responsibility. Circular 230 restricts contingent fees in several situations, so most firms price current-year studies as fixed fees scaled to complexity. The calculator above lets you test what different fee levels mean for your margin.

What exactly does one study include?

One entity for one tax year: the federal calculation, every applicable state, the Section G schedule, technical narratives, the evidence index and the workpapers that support Form 6765. Each amended prior year is a separate study.

Do clients have to connect their systems?

No. Clients can upload standard exports from payroll, accounting and project tools. Connecting systems directly simply reduces back and forth.

Is client data used to train AI models?

No. A client's data is used only to prepare that client's study and is never used to train shared models. Access is role-based and logged, and data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Will TaxVantage contact or market to our clients?

No. TaxVantage never markets to your clients, and portal messages go out under your firm's name. A company your firm brings to the platform stays your client.

Does Occams Advisory's service for companies compete with our firm?

Placeholder: the rule for leads between Occams Advisory's direct service for companies and partner firms.

What happens if the IRS examines a claim?

The evidence trail is already organized by business component, with each figure linked to its source. Examination support from our specialists is available, quoted per matter, working alongside you as the practitioner of record.

What if we use fewer studies than our tier includes?

Unused studies roll forward for twelve months. If you outgrow your tier, you can upgrade at any time and the unused portion of your licence is credited.

Can we see it on a real file before we commit?

Yes. On a partner call we run an anonymized sample study end to end, and you can bring one of your own files under a confidentiality agreement.

What is the R&D tax credit, and does my company qualify?

The federal research credit (Section 41 of the tax code) rewards U.S. companies for work that develops or improves a product, process or software, relies on engineering or science, and involves trying alternatives to solve a technical problem. Pay for the people doing that work, supplies, cloud computing used for it and 65% of contractor costs count toward the credit, which is claimed on Form 6765 with the tax return.

How much is the R&D tax credit worth?

The federal credit is usually about 6 to 8% of what a company spends on qualifying research, depending on how that spending has grown, and many states add their own credit. Companies with under $5 million in revenue and no more than five years of revenue can use up to $500,000 a year of the federal credit against payroll taxes, so it also helps companies that are not yet profitable.

How much does TaxVantage cost for a company?

$2,500 to start, plus 18% of the credit you receive. On a $100,000 credit you pay $20,500 in total. Occams Advisory's licensed tax professionals prepare and sign the study.

What is an R&D credit study?

The file that backs up your claim. It shows which projects pass the IRS four-part test, whose time and which costs count, and the Section G schedule, with every figure linked to the record it came from. Your CPA uses it to complete Form 6765 with your return.

Who prepares and signs my study?

AI agents gather your records, match them to projects and draft the study. A licensed tax professional at Occams Advisory decides every judgment call and signs it. The software never signs anything.

When do we get the money?

As a lower federal income tax bill on the return that claims the credit. Companies with under $5 million in gross receipts, and no gross receipts before the last five years, can instead elect to use up to $500,000 a year against payroll taxes, starting with the first quarter after they file that return.

How far back can you claim R&D tax credits?

Generally you can amend returns for tax years that are still open, usually the last three years, to claim credits you missed. Refund claims for the research credit must include specific supporting details, so each past year is prepared as its own study.

Is the 18% fee a contingent fee, and how does it fit professional rules?

Placeholder: counsel-approved answer covering Circular 230 section 10.27 and state CPA board rules on contingent fees.

What happens to the $2,500 if no credit is found?

Placeholder: refund or credit policy for the $2,500.

Become one of 10 founding partner firms.

Open to the first 10 firms for three months from launch. Founding partners shape the platform in its first year, lock founding pricing for two years and work with a named partner lead from day one.

What founding partners receive

  • 25% off the first year and the same price in year two
  • Your first live study reviewed by a specialist at no charge
  • A direct line into the product roadmap
  • Recognition as a founding partner, if you want it

What we ask in return

  • A published case study after your first season
  • Candid feedback, every month of year one

Placeholder: a quote from a founding firm, with the partner's name, the firm and their permission

From Occams Advisory, recognized by Inc. 5000, the Financial Times and Fortune.

Prefer to talk? Call +1 443-720-2000.

Book a partner call

Thirty minutes on your clients, your volume and the licence that fits.

We use these details only to arrange the call. Privacy policy (opens in a new tab)

What happens next

  1. A 30-minute call: we run an anonymized sample study end to end.
  2. Bring one of your own files, under a confidentiality agreement.
  3. Your first live study runs with a TaxVantage specialist alongside.

Ready to claim your credit?

Tell us a little about your company. A tax professional from Occams Advisory will confirm whether you qualify and walk you through what happens next.

From Occams Advisory, recognized by Inc. 5000, the Financial Times and Fortune.

Prefer to talk? Call +1 443-720-2000.

Speak to an expert