Since the US Supreme Court's 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair decision, every state can require sales tax collection from out-of-state sellers who exceed its economic nexus threshold — typically $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions per year. As of 2026, 45 states plus the District of Columbia impose sales tax, and most have economic nexus rules. A SaaS company or e-commerce business with $500K in annual sales spread across 20 states may have nexus obligations in 15 or more of them without realising it. Retroactive registration and back-filing — often triggered by a state notice or a merger/acquisition due diligence process — carries penalties and interest for every missed filing period. GAP conducts an economic nexus analysis for every new engagement and handles registration, ongoing filing, and remittance across all applicable states.

Three of the four jurisdictions GAP serves offer meaningful tax incentives for qualifying research and development activity — and all three are routinely under-claimed by small and medium-sized businesses. In the USA, the Section 41 R&D tax credit (Form 6765) applies to qualifying research wages, contractor costs, and supply costs — startups can now apply it against payroll tax even before generating revenue. In the UK, the R&D Expenditure Credit (RDEC) and SME R&D relief schemes were consolidated from April 2024 into a single merged scheme, requiring updated calculations and correct treatment in the CT600. In Australia, the R&D Tax Incentive provides a 43.5% refundable offset for eligible entities with under $20M turnover. Each scheme has different eligibility criteria, documentation requirements, and timing rules — and all three can be claimed for prior years with an amended return or refund claim.

The 83(b) election under IRC Section 83(b) must be filed with the IRS within 30 calendar days of receiving restricted stock or a restricted stock grant — there is no extension. Missing this window means the founder or employee is taxed on the full value of the stock at ordinary income rates when it vests, rather than on the (often lower) value at grant. For early-stage startups with founders receiving restricted stock near founding, the 83(b) election is one of the most valuable tax actions available — and one of the most frequently missed. Separately, Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) under Section 1202 can exclude up to $10M in capital gains from tax for qualifying shareholders — but only if specific conditions are met and documented at issuance. GAP files 83(b) elections within the 30-day window and documents QSBS eligibility at the time of investment.

US persons (individuals, corporations, partnerships) with foreign financial accounts, foreign subsidiaries, or interests in foreign entities have filing obligations beyond their income tax return. FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is required if any foreign account exceeded $10,000 at any point during the year — the non-willful penalty is up to $16,536 per violation and willful penalties can reach 50% of the account balance. Form 5471 (foreign corporations) and Form 8865 (foreign partnerships) carry initial penalties of $10,000 per form per year for failure to file — and the IRS statute of limitations does not begin running on the entire tax return until these forms are filed. Businesses with international structures that are unaware of these requirements often accumulate multi-year penalty stacks before the issue surfaces. GAP identifies all required international information returns in the initial engagement scope and files them alongside the income tax return.

The IRS First-Time Abatement program waives failure-to-file, failure-to-pay, and failure-to-deposit penalties for taxpayers with a clean compliance history for the three prior tax years — but only if you request it. The IRS does not apply it automatically. For a business that was compliant for several years and then missed one filing due to illness, a staffing change, or an accounting transition, First-Time Abatement can eliminate thousands of dollars in penalties. GAP reviews penalty history for all new clients and files FTA requests where applicable. UK HMRC and CRA have equivalent reasonable-cause penalty relief mechanisms, which we use where available.