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.
This is the model that built billion-dollar firms in the R&D tax credit space — applied to SECURE 2.0 retirement plan credits. We identify eligible plans, calculate their credits, deliver signature-ready Form 8881 packages, and collect a percentage of credits recovered. The sponsor pays nothing upfront and keeps 75% of credits they didn't know existed.
This is the model that built billion-dollar firms in the R&D tax credit space. Partner with a licensed CPA firm. Use the platform to identify eligible plans at scale. Offer plan sponsors a done-for-you service: no upfront fee, no risk. The fee — typically 20–25% of credits actually received — is collected after the tax return is filed and the credit hits. The sponsor pays nothing unless they save money.
For a plan with $20,000 in credits, the fee is $5,000. The sponsor still saves $15,000 they didn't know existed. The vast majority of these small employers — the ones with 10, 20, 40 employees — do not have a CPA on speed dial who understands retirement plan tax credits. You become that resource.
This isn't a new idea. It's an established, accepted practice in the tax advisory industry. Specialty tax firms have operated on a contingency basis in the R&D tax credit space for decades — identifying eligible activities, calculating credits, preparing the forms, and taking a percentage of credits recovered. The model is well-understood by the IRS, by clients, and by the profession. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and IRS Circular 230 provide the regulatory framework. What's new is applying it to SECURE 2.0 retirement plan credits — a space where no one has built the data infrastructure to identify eligible plans at scale. Until now.
The credits are recurring — the same plan generates fees for up to 5 years. One engagement, all years.
Walks into a small business with 35 employees. Shows them Credit(k) on their phone. The owner sees $42,000 in unclaimed credits. The advisor becomes their retirement plan advisor that day.
Reviews 30 business clients during tax season. File(k) identifies 8 with unclaimed credits. Pre-fills the Form 8881 for each. At 25% contingency, that's an additional $27,000 in fees from clients they already have.
Runs their book through Search(k). Discovers 47 clients with active credits. Generates the CPA transfer packages for each. Positions themselves as the TPA that saves their clients real money.
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.