Which type of R&D tax advisor is actually worth it for an early-stage startup in Australia?
We're a 12-person software company that's done legit R&D for a couple years but never actually filed a claim. Every firm we talked to wanted a big upfront engagement that just felt way too much for where we were at.
Finally got serious this year. Quotes were all over the place. Traditional consultancies wanted fees that ate a huge chunk of the refund, plus months of back and forth and a ton of documentation work dumped on our engineers.
Ended up going with a platform that pulls from our existing GitHub and Jira data using AI, then has actual tax people review before submission. Way cheaper, done in days, no issues so far.
Curious what others have done here. Boutique firm, big accountancy practice, something more modern? Percentage-based or flat fee? Was it actually worth it?