Staxiom vs. Gusto
Gusto is a payroll platform, and its R&D tax credit service — built on Ardius, the company it acquired in 2021 — calculates your credit and lets you redeem it in real time against payroll tax deposits, right inside Gusto.
15% contingency fee on the credit Gusto identifies.
The free real-time offset only applies if you're already a Gusto payroll customer — everyone else pays $100/month just to apply a credit calculated elsewhere. Staxiom's review isn't tied to which payroll provider you use.
Gusto's calculation runs off payroll data, which captures W-2 wage-based R&D expenses well but isn't built to also catch qualifying contractor costs, supplies, or cloud compute the way a fuller review can. Staxiom's credit review is done by a CPA who ran EY's West Coast R&D Tax Credit practice for 13 years, looking at the full expense picture, not just payroll.
Gusto's R&D credit product is the renamed Ardius, the company Staxiom's own co-founder was on the early team of before Gusto acquired it in 2021 — the team behind Staxiom has seen this exact model built from the inside.
Sources: Gusto — Calculate R&D tax credits with Gusto (Help Center); Gusto — Apply R&D tax credits calculated by your CPA or R&D firm (Help Center). Pricing and terms are Gusto's own, published on their sites — confirm current terms directly with them before deciding, since pricing changes over time.
Add your revenue and website for a full diligence brief, reviewed by a CPA who ran EY's West Coast R&D Tax Credit practice for 13 years.