The SECURE 2.0 Act created three tax credits — the biggest being up to $1,000 per employee per year for 5 years — for small employers with retirement plans. Almost none of them know. Prior-year credits are still recoverable via amended returns within the 3-year filing window. We built the only platform that finds these employers, calculates their credits, and pre-fills the actual IRS Form 8881.
Bloomfield et al. (2025) used detailed IRS and Census data to examine how firms respond to retirement plan tax incentives. Three findings define Credit(k)'s market:
A $20,000 tax credit is a conversation-starter that turns into a $200,000 AUM relationship or a $5,000/year TPA retainer. The advisor who walks into a business and says "I can save you $20,000 in tax credits you didn't know you had" wins that client. The CPA who files the Form 8881 becomes the CPA of record. The TPA who identifies credits across their book demonstrates irreplaceable expertise. TaxCredit(k) is the engine behind all three of those conversations.
Credit(k) identifies eligible plans, calculates their credits across the full 5-year window, and delivers signature-ready IRS Form 8881 packages for every eligible tax year — including prior years recoverable via amended returns. The sponsor pays a 25% fee upfront, backed by a 100% money-back guarantee. They take the completed package to their own CPA or tax preparer for filing. We do the hard part. They sign and file.
Credit(k) sends plan-specific, customized outreach to sponsors showing their estimated credits. When a sponsor engages, they pay 25% of the total identified credits upfront. In return, they receive signature-ready IRS Form 8881 packages for every eligible tax year across the full 5-year credit window — including amended returns for prior years. The sponsor takes the completed package to their own CPA or tax preparer for filing. Credit(k) is not a CPA firm and does not file returns. We are a credit calculation and form preparation service.
For a plan with $31,000 in credits, the fee is $7,750. The sponsor still saves $23,250 in credits they didn't know existed — and would never have filed. The 100% money-back guarantee means if we can't deliver valid filing packages, the sponsor gets every dollar back. We take the risk. They get the credits.
Credit(k) is a credit calculation and form preparation service — not a CPA firm, not a tax advisor, and not a return preparer. The IRS permits anyone with a PTIN to prepare tax forms, and Credit(k) goes further by not filing at all: sponsors take the completed Form 8881 packages to their own CPA or tax preparer. The upfront-fee-with-guarantee model is well-established in tax credit recovery — firms across the R&D credit and ERC spaces have operated this way for years. The 100% money-back guarantee protects the sponsor: if Credit(k) cannot deliver valid filing packages, the fee is fully refunded. The sponsor's CPA retains full control of the filing decision.
The credits are recurring — the same plan generates fees for up to 5 years. One engagement, all years.
Receives a customized letter showing their specific plan has $38,000 in unclaimed credits. Visits the Credit(k) site. Sees the Georgetown study, the 94.5% stat, and the money-back guarantee. Engages Credit(k), pays $9,500 upfront, and receives signature-ready Form 8881 packages for all eligible tax years. Hands them to their CPA. Done.
Walks into a small business with 35 employees. Shows them their Credit(k) estimate on screen. The owner sees $42,000 in recoverable credits. The advisor connects them to Credit(k) and becomes their retirement plan advisor that day.
Runs their book through the Credit(k) dataset. Discovers 47 clients with active credits. Refers them in bulk. Positions themselves as the TPA that saves their clients real money — without doing any of the credit calculation work.
The platform isn't just software. It's a proprietary data asset. 204,113 credit-eligible plans indexed with full employer addresses, TPA relationships, contribution amounts, and eligibility windows — derived from Form 5500 and 5500-SF filings. No one else has built this. The dataset refreshes annually and deepens with each cycle. The IRS Form 8881 fill capability uses pdf-lib to programmatically fill all 29 fields of the official form — when the IRS updates it, we update the template. Zero code changes, zero disruption. And the calculation engine implements every SECURE 2.0 credit with phase-out corrections per current IRS guidance.
The R&D tax credit recovery industry generates billions in annual revenue using exactly the same model — identify eligible companies, calculate credits, prepare the forms, and take a percentage of what's recovered. SECURE 2.0 retirement plan credits are the next frontier. The $6.3 billion is real. The data is built. The forms are ready. The only question is how fast you scale.