Why don't you charge a contingency fee?

Contingency fees reward aggressive claims and typically take 15–20% of your credit. With a flat fee, our only incentive is a credit that's accurate and defensible.

What counts as a qualified small business?

Gross receipts under $5 million in the credit year, and none in any year before the five-tax-year period ending with it. Interest on your cash counts as gross receipts, so the clock can start before your first sale. The election goes on a Form 6765 filed by the due date, including extensions, for up to five years.

Can we claim credits for prior years?

Usually, for years still open. The IRS turns away refund claims that don't name each business component and the people and costs behind it, so we build prior years the same way as the current one. The payroll election can't be made late, so a prior-year credit offsets income tax instead.

What changes with Section G?

From 2026 tax years, most filers list their business components on Form 6765, with the information sought and the wages, supplies, and contractor costs behind each. That's hard to rebuild in the spring, so we track it through the year. Smaller claims and payroll-election filers are exempt.

What if our credit is examined?

We represent you, including on credits other firms prepared. The examiner's first request usually asks for each business component, the uncertainty you faced, and how wages tie to the work, and our work papers answer it.

R&D Tax Credits

A team focused on getting you every dollar you qualify for, at one flat fee.

#1 Most-Rated Firmon Sam's List, YC Deals

Trusted by 1,100+ teams

You don't need a profit to get dollars back. Startups can apply the credit to payroll tax.

A year, the limit for qualified small businesses: $500K
Generally, to go back and claim a credit you missed: 3 years
To carry forward credit you can't use yet: 20 years

What you get. Calculations that hold up.

QREs, line by line
Wages, supplies, contractors, and development compute, with the costs that don't qualify left out on purpose.
Project by project
Each product, feature, or process checked against the IRS test for qualified research.
Pass-⁠through owners
For LLCs and S corps, the credit lands on owners' K-⁠1s, so we check each owner can actually use it.
Payroll tax election
Elected with your return, then claimed each quarter against your payroll tax.
Credit vs. deduction
The full credit or the reduced one, whichever leaves you better off, decided each year.
Defended if examined
We've defended our credits under IRS exam and won, by handing the examiner the work papers.

Four steps, then it's off your plate.

Engage us for an annual fee
We scope it once, then update it every year as your projects change.
Give us access
Connect payroll, your org chart, and Jira or Linear, and we pull what the calculation needs.
We review your work
Your business components, team composition, what you're building, and where your team is located.
We file the credits
The federal credit with your return, plus state credits wherever you qualify.

WB
Will Bailey3:15 PM
Do we still qualify for the payroll offset this year?
Arthur GreenwoodRivet3:41 PM
You do: under $5M in gross receipts, and your first receipts, bank interest included, came in 2023. We elected $310K on Form 6765. It comes off your 941s from next quarter.
WB
Will Bailey3:44 PM
That covers a lot of payroll. Thank you.

Signs you're leaving money on the table.

You run pilot production
You build game engines
You test new process equipment
You run clinical studies
You file patents
Your LLC builds software
You build sensors
You design for manufacturing
You re-architected your stack
You hire a US dev agency
You develop new algorithms
You build drones
You build developer tools
Your first revenue is recent
You run lab experiments
You run load tests to failure
You build computer vision
You build batteries or solar
No one can explain your claim
You run simulations
Payroll tax is a big expense
You develop new materials
You built a compiler or DSL
You invented a new process
R&D spend grows every year
You optimize model inference
You develop new drugs
Your last credit had no backup
You rewrote a hot path in Rust
You develop medical devices
You build robots
Your team tracks work in Jira
You train on synthetic data
You design chips
You write firmware
You cut p99 latency in half
You have engineers in California
You iterate on prototypes
You missed credits in past years
You use US contractors for R&D
You run ablation studies
Gross receipts are under $5M
You design hardware
Your past credit is under exam
You write custom CUDA kernels
Your experiments sometimes fail
You build software
You're pre-revenue
You run evals before you ship
You pay a contingency fee today
You build AI agents
You've never claimed the credit
You pay engineers in the US
Your cloud bill is mostly GPUs
You've raised venture capital
You train or fine-tune models

Clients, in their own words.

“Rivet is 100x better than any tax advisor we've used before.”
Daniel PetkevichFounder at Fair Square
“Responsiveness and reliability! Most accountants don’t answer your questions for weeks, and try to avoid being helpful to save time. Rivet felt like the opposite. They went above and beyond.”
Vibhav JoopelliVP of Finance at Cursor
“It’s been awesome seeing Rivet serve many of the fastest growing companies in the world.”
Eric GlymanCo-⁠Founder, CEO at Ramp
“The perfect example of customer-⁠obsessed, deep domain experts who are building delightful products with AI.”
Chauncey HamiltonPartner at XYZ
“Rivet is the only tax firm Ranger ever plans to use.”
Josh IpFounder at Ranger

See why industry-⁠leading businesses choose Rivet.

Planning, not just filing
We look ahead while we file, so big decisions get made before they get expensive.
Corporate and personal, together
The company's returns and its executive team's personal returns, from one team that knows both.
Big Four-⁠trained accountants
A team from the Big Four and top national firms reviews every return.
Agents do the legwork
Software we built runs the busywork, so our accountants spend their time on judgment calls.
Every filing in-⁠house
Our own team prepares and files your federal and state returns, in all 50 states.
Tax only, or tax plus bookkeeping
Your choice. Keep your books and upgrade your tax, or hand us both.

Frequently asked questions

Can't find what you're looking for? Talk to our team.

Don't let complexity slow you down.

One price for the whole year. No hourly billing.
Got an IRS notice or a deadline coming up? Book an urgent call

Claim the full credit, without the contingency fee.

You don't need a profit to get dollars back. Startups can apply the credit to payroll tax.

What you get. Calculations that hold up.

QREs, line by line

Project by project

Pass-⁠through owners

Payroll tax election

Credit vs. deduction

Defended if examined

Four steps, then it's off your plate.

Engage us for an annual fee

Give us access

We review your work

We file the credits

Signs you're leaving money on the table.

Clients, in their own words.

See why industry-⁠leading businesses choose Rivet.

Planning, not just filing

Corporate and personal, together

Big Four-⁠trained accountants

Agents do the legwork

Every filing in-⁠house

Tax only, or tax plus bookkeeping