Tax Tools for Startups: Ensuring Compliance and Maximizing Benefits

Burkland’s Tax Toolkit for Startups is built to help founders navigate the tax complexity that comes with growth. As teams expand, revenue ramps, and operations span states or countries, tax obligations multiply quickly and missed details get expensive. This toolkit curates the most useful tax tools in one place to help founders stay compliant, plan ahead, and make smarter decisions as they scale. Below, we’ve grouped the tools by the type of taxes they address to make it easy to find what you need, when you need it.

Startup Tax Tools

Tax compliance helps your startup avoid penalties, build investor trust, and stay legally sound.

1. Taxes for Early-Stage Startups: What Do I Have to Pay?
   This guide provides an overview of corporate tax obligations to help your startup understand what taxes must be paid and when.
2. Tax Deadlines for Startups in 2026
   Burkland’s essential tax calendar lists key federal, state, and municipal tax filing dates for startups to ensure timely compliance.
3. Tax Preparation Cost Calculator
   Use this budget planning tool to estimate the cost of tax preparation for your startup in 2026.
4. Tax Preparation Checklist for Startups
   This checklist will help you gather the necessary documents and information for tax preparation and streamline the process for your tax professionals.
5. 8 Common Startup Tax Mistakes to Avoid
   Avoid common tax errors made by startups to ensure smoother tax operations and legal compliance.
6. Guide to Form 1120: US Corporation Income Tax Return Filing
   Unfamiliar with Form 1120? This guide from our partner Deel will help manage your US corporation’s tax return to ensure compliance with complex federal regulations.

R&D Tax Credit Tools

R&D tax credits can help your startup save money to fuel growth.

1. Startup Tax Credit Calculator
   Businesses can receive up to $500,000 in payroll tax savings per year with R&D tax credit. Use this calculator to estimate your potential savings and contact our tax team for an assessment.
2. R&D Tax Credit Misconceptions Could Cost Your Startup Six Figures
   Think your startup doesn’t qualify for R&D tax credits? Think again. Burkland’s tax team compiled this list of common R&D tax credit misconceptions that can make it difficult to identify eligible credits or lead to unnecessary challenges along the way.
3. The Complete Guide to R&D Tax Credit for AI Startups
   Save cash, extend runway, and accelerate innovation. AI startups can save up to $500,000 per year by claiming qualified research expenses.
4. What The Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA) Means For Founders
   Effective starting in the 2025 tax year, U.S.-based R&D expenses are fully deductible as soon as they’re spent. And, startups with less than $31 million in average annual gross receipts may elect to apply this change retroactively.

Payroll and Employment Tax Tools

Failure to remit correct payroll taxes can quickly snowball into a very expensive mistake.

1. Payroll Taxes for Startups: What Do I Have to Pay?
   Avoid payroll pitfalls and learn the essential taxes every startup must pay and how to stay compliant with IRS and state regulations.
2. Payroll Compliance Checklist and Tax Law Guide for 2026
   A comprehensive guide to ensure payroll compliance, covering federal, state, and international tax laws from Deel.
3. Employer Tax Calculator
   Use this template from our partner Gusto to calculate the total cost of hiring new employees, including all applicable taxes, assisting in financial planning.
4. Hourly and Salary Paycheck Calculators
   These calculators from Gusto help determine withholdings and calculate take-home pay for both hourly and salaried employees, ensuring accurate payroll processing.

Sales Tax Tools

Sales tax compliance becomes increasingly complex as your startup scales.

1. Navigating the Sales Tax Registration Process in the United States
   This guide from Stripe will help you determine when you need to register to collect tax and avoid penalties and interest.
2. What Every High-Growth Startup Should Know About Sales And Use Tax Compliance
   Sales and use tax errors add up fast, from surprise penalties to deal friction. Learn how to stay clean before due diligence starts.
3. Sales Tax Compliance Steps for Startups
   Startups can face serious penalties for failing to comply with state sales tax laws. If you’ve fallen behind, this guide will show you steps to take to catch up.
4. Calculate Sales Tax
   This free sales tax tool from Gusto features a calculator, a state-by-state sales tax rate table, and answers to common sales tax questions.
5. Estimate Your Sales Tax Exposure
   Our partner Anrok compiled this template to identify where you’ve likely triggered the need to register and collect sales tax.

Proactive tax planning throughout the year helps founders avoid surprises, reduce risk, and uncover savings that are easy to miss when taxes are treated as a once-a-year task. These tools can streamline the basics, but growing startups still benefit from seasoned tax professionals who understand venture-backed growth, equity compensation, multi-state operations, and R&D incentives.  Contact Burkland to learn more about how we can help.