There is a lot of opportunity for free capital in the U.S. tax credit system, but in practice many people never fully claim tax credits because they don’t know about them, forget them, or find them too complicated to use. Most business owners don't have a team of tax specialists to catch every opportunity they qualify for and every year, small business owners leave money on the table.
Congress wrote credits to specifically reward the things small businesses are already doing: hiring, launching retirement plans, and paying tipped workers. The cash and their eligibility is real. Most owners just never collect, because no one tells them it's theirs or too hard to collect.
So we built a system that does.
This spring, Gusto's AI helped small businesses claim $70 million1 in tax credits during the TY25 filing season, with savings on pace to grow by more than 200% this year if current trends continue through year-end. No spreadsheets. No reconciling. No vendor chasing. Just cash that can be invested in new hires, equipment, runway, and the people who actually built the business.
Three credits small businesses should know about
The R&D Tax Credit. Up 63% in customers served and 33% in total savings versus last spring2. It can offset payroll taxes directly, reduce overall tax liability, or carry forward — and it's the credit most owners don't realize applies to them. Software work, product iteration, even custom internal platforms inside a non-tech business: often eligible. If you're paying developers, you should be checking.
The 401(k) Startup Tax Credit.3 In its first full filing season on Gusto, it helped roughly 1 in 3 eligible customers offset the cost of offering retirement benefits to their teams. Small businesses already offer worse retirement options than big employers. This credit helps narrow the gap — and it should reach more of them.
The FICA Tip Tax Credit. We launched this feature on March 13, just weeks before the deadline, and still reached about 1 in 5 eligible customers. For restaurants, salons, bars, and any tip-heavy team, it turns an unavoidable employer tax into a real refund. It adds up fast.
Take Cabana Pools
If you wanted to identify a business least likely to qualify for an R&D tax credit, you might think of a pool service company. Pool service companies don't typically run engineering teams. They don't ship software.
But Cabana does both.
Founded by a serial entrepreneur, Jeremy Yamaguchi, who was born in Japan, immigrated to the U.S. at 16, and has three exits behind him before he turned to pool service. Cabana is a rare venture-backed rollup of legacy pool service companies, built on top of proprietary software and AI automation. Today, the company runs 150 employees across 12 acquired businesses.
This year was Cabana's first time claiming the R&D credit. They got back $49,000, and the credit grew 5x year over year as their engineering team scaled.
"Cabana is a modern, tech-enabled pool service, and our edge is proprietary software," the founder told us. "The credit directly offsets that spend. At $49k, it's a significant salary subsidy — it lets us build more tech, faster."
The bigger surprise wasn't the size. It was that they qualified at all.
"Most founders assume R&D credits are for biotech or deep tech, not operators building internal platforms. Running it through Gusto made the lift almost nothing on our end."
His advice to other owners is:
"Don't self-disqualify. A lot of owners hear 'R&D' and picture lab coats, so they never check. If you're paying developers or building custom software, there's a real chance you qualify. The cost to find out is low, and the credit comes back as cash you can reinvest in what you were already going to build."
How it works
Gusto's AI analyzes signals across payroll, benefits, and HR data to flag who likely qualifies for what, usually before the owner has thought to look4. The customer reviews what we found, confirms eligibility, and decides whether to file. We handle the supporting evidence: pulling and organizing the documentation a claim needs, so the owner isn't reconciling spreadsheets, chasing vendors, or running calculations by hand.
Owners stay in control of the decision. We do the work of finding and documenting what's eligible.
The deadline passed. The opportunity didn't.
If you filed an extension, there's still time to claim these credits this year. If you've already filed, an amended return can recover credits you missed — typically within a window of several years.
Tax season is a moment. Running a business isn't. The complexity of the tax code shouldn't be a tax in itself, and with the right system reading the right signals, it doesn't have to be.
The real story isn't that we found $70 million this spring. It's that no small business should have had to leave it on the table to begin with.
Learn how to get started with tax savings.
Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and is not tax, legal, financial, or HR advice. Eligibility for and the value of any tax credit depends on your specific facts and circumstances and applicable IRS and state rules. Consult a qualified tax professional before claiming any credit.
Disclosures
1 $70M reflects total federal tax credits claimed by Gusto customers through Gusto's tax credit features during the TY25 filing season (January–April 2026), based on Gusto internal data as of April 2026. Credits claimed are not the same as refunds received; actual benefit depends on each customer's tax situation.
2 Gusto internal data comparing TY25 filing season to TY24 filing season. Growth percentages reflect year-over-year changes in customers served and total estimated credit amounts identified through Gusto's R&D Tax Credit service.
3 Tax credit services provided by Gusto, Inc. Please contact a financial, tax, and/or legal advisor to determine if their applications and products are appropriate for your specific circumstance.
4 Eligibility is informational and not tax advice. Customers should consult a qualified tax advisor to confirm eligibility before filing.
