What would you like help with?

We stand by our work.

We'll step in to support you during the process.

When you work with us, you’re protected by the MainStreet Guarantee: we guarantee you’ll end up in a better financial position by using our services. If you don’t - we’ll cover you up to $1,000,000.

In the unlikely event of an audit – less than 1% of startups even begin an audit process – we'll step in to support you and cover the costs of any accountants, lawyers, or penalties incurred related to credits we helped you claim.

Some other credit processors intentionally do not protect you during audits in order to cut costs – when it comes to tax work, you get what you pay for. We stand by all of our work and will step in to justify the credits claimed on your return.

Running payroll manually with an old-school accountant?

Our system and qualification processes rely on real-time access to your payroll program to recommend and apply for tax credits and incentives. If you use an old-school accountant to run your payroll manually every month, we’re happy to recommend some options – drop us a line.

I use [insert payroll system here] - can I use MainStreet? Yep. :)

We integrate with Gusto, Rippling, ADP, Paychex, Namely, Trinet, QuickBooks, Sage, OnPay, and dozens more systems. You’ll be able to see the full list of integrations during onboarding. Give us a shout on Intercom if you have any questions, we’ll be able to get you sorted out. 😄

We use Finch to securely connect to your payroll system and only access data required to qualify your startup for tax credits, credit advances, and to develop other MainStreet products. We will never sell or rent your data to a third party, and all data that we collect from you is encrypted securely, both at rest and in transit.

We support 200+ credits most accountants don't check for.

These credits are difficult to find and even more difficult to file for. Many accountants and firms don't bother to file for these credits because they're paid per filing, not by the amount of money they save for you. 

It's free to have us qualify your startup, and we play nice with your CPA – come Tax Day, we'll send them the forms to include in your tax filing to get you back what you're owed and answer any of their questions.

Nope! You do not need to be profitable to get cash back.

A majority of the savings discovered by MainStreet can be claimed against payroll taxes, which means you can get cash back from the IRS every time you run payroll. This can be as much as 10% of your gross payroll.

If you are profitable, don't fret! These credits can also be claimed against federal income taxes, so you'll be able to significantly decrease your tax burden come Tax Day. If you’re both profitable and meet eligibility criteria to take credits against payroll taxes, the choice is yours between taking it against payroll or income taxes. 

We only make money when you do.

Our fees will never exceed 20% of savings we find and claim for you. So, if we qualify your business for $100,000 in tax credits, our fee would be capped at $20,000.

Come filing day, we’ll reconcile your prepaid fees and check all the math.

We’ve gotten very good at these estimations. After working with hundreds of these companies to file for these credits and using the data we grab from your payroll system, our algorithms and tax team are able to estimate these tax filings reliably at scale. 

We’ve gotten very good at estimating these credits accurately – in the off-chance that we’ve overestimated your credits, we’ll refund you any overpayment and reconcile your cash advance to bring our fees below 20%.

Tell us a little bit about your business and connect your payroll – we’ll do the rest. 

After you sign up, we'll connect to your payroll tool to get the information we need about your business and the type of work that you do. We play nice with Gusto, Rippling, ADP, QuickBooks, Justworks, and dozens more.

Based on what you tell us and the data that lives in your payroll system, our team will qualify your startup against hundreds of various tax credits in real-time, every month. These tax credits range from large federal programs to small local programs – when you qualify, we'll do any necessary paperwork for you to include these credits in your yearly tax filing.

Our fees will never exceed 20% of the savings we find you.

If your startup is based in the US or employs people in the US, then likely yes 🙂

If your company conducts some type of economic-activity in the US – has employees, contractors, or has some type of outsourced development firm based in the US – then yes, you're likely to be eligible for some number of tax credits. And no, you don't have to be profitable; some credits can be claimed against your payroll taxes, franchise taxes, or sales taxes.

If you’re doing any of the following, you’re likely owed cash back: it’s free to see if you qualify for hundreds of different tax credits and takes less than 20 minutes to sign up: 

• Raising venture capital from US-based funds or angel investors
• Hiring engineers, designers, PMs, or scientists to launch a new product
• Hiring contracted engineering or product design firms
• Working with a contract research organization (CRO)

If you don’t meet these criteria, you can still create a free profile now – we’ll notify you when new credits are available that might apply to your business.

Yes – your data is secured and used only for MainStreet products.

We use Finch to securely auth into your payroll systems and only access data required to qualify your startup for tax credits, credit advances, and to develop other MainStreet products. We will never sell or rent your data to a third party, and all data that we collect from you is encrypted securely, both at rest and in transit.

You can view our terms of service and our privacy policy.

Every credit advance schedule is personalized to your company, how much you've qualified for, and the type of credit you've qualified for.

Typically, your first bill will be on the first of the month alongside your first cash advance, or beginning the month after your first cash advance.

Either way, it's our guarantee that your fees paid to MainStreet will never exceed 20%. All specifics about your billing and advance schedule can be found on the Billing tab of your MainStreet dashboard.

 It takes less than 15 minutes to get set up with MainStreet.

Onboarding with our self-serve flow takes less than 15 minutes, or we’re happy to walk you through the process live.

For most of our tax credits, we’ll need no more than an hour of additional time when we generate your paperwork to confirm details and make sure you and your accountant understand the credits we’re helping you claim. Easy peasy.

Yes! We’ll work with your accountant to get you back what you’re owed.

Come credit filing time, we’ll provide your accountant with all the paperwork and guidance they’ll need to include these credits in your annual or quarterly tax filings. These are credits accountants typically don’t check or file for – they’ll have the opportunity to review all of our work, and we’re happy to work with them if there are any questions before they file.

Cash advances, cheaper fees, and less of your time – what’s not to love?

We’re not your standard tax preparer. 

We’ll take up less of your time. Most accountants and boutique agencies will take 20 to 40 hours of your time to manually generate the paperwork and R&D studies that protect you in case of an audit. We grab all the data we need programmatically – for most credits, we’ll need less than an hour of your time when it’s time to file to confirm and review our work.

Get the cash you’re owed today instead of in a year. We have access to large debt funds to give you cash advances for the credits you’re earning in real-time – nobody else is able to offer this. Instead of having to wait until Tax Day to get your credits, we’re able to give you access to a portion of the credits you’re owed in real-time at 0% interest. 

Audit support. Some other credit processors intentionally won’t support you during an audit in order to cut costs – when it comes to tax work, you get what you pay for. We stand by all of our work and will step in to justify any claimed credits if the IRS asks.

Hundreds of credits supported. Many accountants – if they check at all – will only qualify you for one or two credits. Our platform supports hundreds of credits that most agencies and CPAs don’t bother looking for because they’re complex to claim.

In event that your credit is less than our estimate, we’ll reconcile our fees back under 20%.

We’ve gotten very good at estimating these credits accurately – in the off-chance that we’ve overestimated your credits, we’ll refund you any overpayment and reconcile your cash advance to bring our fees below 20%. If we don’t save you anything, we don’t get paid – full stop.

When you work with us, you’re protected by the MainStreet Guarantee: we guarantee you’ll end up in a better financial position by using our services. If you don’t - we’ll cover you up to $1,000,000.

We’ll do the legwork and send you the forms to include in your tax filing.

The nuts and bolts of the process will largely depend on which credits we’re helping you claim – for example, with the federal R&D credit, we’ll prepare and provide your Form 6765 using data collected from your payroll system. You can then review the form with your accountant, who will file it along with your annual tax filing.

It largely depends on the specific credit - reach out for more information.

Your payment schedule will overwhelmingly depend on which credits we’re helping your startup claim and how you’re claiming them.

For example – if you’re taking the Federal R&D credit against your payroll taxes, you can start using the credit the quarter after you file your taxes. Some payroll providers will let you use the credits with each payroll cycle to offset payroll taxes, some will have you pay payroll taxes as normal but file the paperwork at the end of each quarter to get a refund back from the government, and some will give you the credit back on your statement each quarter.

We’ve designed MainStreet’s cash advance program to make sure you don’t have to think about the specifics of any payment or repayment – sign up, get cash every month, and we’ll make sure you’re getting back what you’re owed.

If you have any questions about your specific credit schedule, give us a shout on Intercom, we’re happy to walk you through it.

It depends on the specific credit we’re helping you claim.

The amount we’re able to advance depends on a number of factors, including the specific credit we’re helping you claim and how much you’re approved for. You’ll be able to see how much of each credit is available for advance when you use MainStreet for a particular credit.

If you have any questions about your specific credit advance schedule or qualifications, give us a shout on Intercom, we’re happy to walk you through it.

No, we only have one credit advance program right now.

We’re unable to extend cash advances for more than you’re approved for – if you have questions about other non-dilutive financing options, give us a shout, we have a number of partners that we’ve worked with in the past to help startups scale quicker.

Less than 1% of startups are audited, and you’re protected by the MainStreet Guarantee.

Less than 1% of startups even begin an audit process – in the off-chance you’re audited, you’re protected by the MainStreet Guarantee: we guarantee you’ll end up in a better financial position by using our services. If you don’t - we’ll cover any accountant fees and associated penalties you incur up to $1,000,000.

Some other credit processors intentionally do not protect you during audits in order to cut costs – when it comes to tax work, you get what you pay for. We stand by all of our work and will step in to justify the credits claimed on your return.

We’re happy to spend time with you and your accountant to explain our work.

We’ll always share forms and details with you ahead of time – some paperwork we can file on your behalf, some will be sent to your accountant to be included in your annual tax returns. 

You’ll be kept in the loop every step of the way and we’re happy to walk you through any specifics before filing.

Nope! You can claim R&D tax credits with even a month of payroll.

You don’t need a full year of payroll to claim your R&D tax credits. As long as you’ve spent money on what the IRS defines as “Qualified Research Expenses” – that could be employee payroll, a contracted engineer or product design firm, or working with a CRO.

It’s our job to figure this out for you – schedule time with one of our tax credit experts here and we’ll walk you through the entire process.