Novii CPA

The IRS will literally pay you back for R&D spending

You're spending money on research and development. The IRS will actually pay you back for it - if you document it correctly.

This is the R&D Tax Credit and it's one of the most underused credits in biotech and life sciences.

Here's what qualifies. Wages paid to employees working on R&D. Contractor costs for qualified research. Supplies used in the research process. And in some cases, cloud computing costs for R&D workloads.

You do not need to be profitable to claim it. Pre-revenue biotech companies can use it to offset payroll taxes which is a game changer for early-stage startups.

How much can you get? The credit is generally 20% of qualified research expenses above a base amount. For many biotech companies, that's tens of thousands of dollars and sometimes more.

The catch is documentation. The IRS requires you to show that your research meets four specific criteria, it's technological in nature, it has a permitted purpose, it involves experimentation, and there's uncertainty involved.

Most biotech companies already do this work. They just don't document it in a way that supports the credit.

If you're spending on R&D and you haven't claimed this credit - you're leaving real money on the table. Link in bio to book a free 30-minute call and find out what you qualify for.

Fully booked. Still broke. Here's why.

You're billing more than ever. Your calendar is completely full. So why does your bank account still look like it did when you had half the clients?

This is one of the most common problems we see with professional services firms. And it almost always comes down to the same three things.

First: Billing lag. You do $50K of work in January. You invoice in February. You get paid in March — maybe April if the client is slow. That 60-to-90-day gap between work done and cash received is silently strangling your cash flow.

Second: You're not collecting upfront. Most service businesses send invoices after the work is done. Flip the model. Require a deposit before you start. Bill at milestones.

It's not aggressive — it's professional.

Third: Your revenue is project-based and unpredictable. One big month, one slow month. The feast and famine cycle kills cash flow planning. If you can convert even a portion of your work to retainers — monthly, recurring revenue — your cash flow stabilizes almost immediately.

None of these are revenue problems. They're cash flow structure problems. And the fix doesn't require more clients — it requires better structure.

Follow us for more cash flow strategies built specifically for service businesses.

S-Corp election — does it actually save you money?

Honestly? It depends. But if you're a consultant or agency owner with strong, consistent net profit, it's worth a real conversation.

Here's the thing most people don't realize.

When you're a sole proprietor or single-member LLC, most of your business profit gets hit with self-employment tax — Social Security and Medicare — on top of regular income tax. That adds up fast.

An S-Corp changes the equation.

As an S-Corp owner, your income gets split into two buckets:

A reasonable salary — subject to payroll taxes.

Distributions — generally not subject to self-employment tax.

Let's put some numbers to it.

Say your business nets $200K.

As a sole prop, most of that is subject to SE tax.

As an S-Corp, you might pay yourself a $80K salary and take the rest as distributions — after payroll, expenses, and compliance costs. That gap can mean real savings. Sometimes five figures a year.

But here's what I want you to hear clearly: this isn't automatic, and it's not free.

Running an S-Corp comes with real overhead — payroll, separate bookkeeping, a business tax return, and compliance. And the IRS has opinions about what "reasonable salary" means. Get that wrong, and you've got a problem.

Done carelessly, it creates risk.
Done thoughtfully, it's one of the best tax planning moves available to small business owners.

Before you make any decisions, run the numbers with your accountant. The savings need to actually outweigh the costs — and that math looks different for everyone.

Save this and bring it up at your next meeting. It's worth asking the question.

Your accountant should be saving you money, not costing you. Here are 4 signs it's the latter.

Global Team Retreat — and it was a success! 🚀

The entire Novii Team was away from our desks last May 22–25 for our Global Team Retreat. The US Team went to Dominican Republic while the Offshore Team went to Boracay, both soaking up some sunshine after a successful tax season and bonding as a team.

Some of the things we did while we were there:
The US Team is very fond of golf so they took the opportunity to play at the resort's massive golf course! They also went on a Catamaran Trip along the sea where the team enjoyed feeling the breeze of the ocean and snorkeling. Who doesn't like it, right?

One thing we discovered — Bailey, Victoria, and Jake have some hidden talent in dancing 🤣 The next time they come to your networking events, you should see them to dance.

On the other hand, the Offshore team is a lot more adventurous. For the first time, they met in-person and clicked right away! They then spent some time designing the room and arranging those souvenirs. The following day they spent some time Island Hopping going from one beach to another, snorkeling, and also went Paraw Sailing where they enjoyed the peaceful waves of the sea and watching the sunset.

Would you want to see the dancing videos? Because yes, we have a footage 👀