Metrics investors trust. Taxes that hold up.

Section 174 caught founders flat. Domestic research and experimental costs — including much of software development — must be amortized over five years rather than deducted immediately. Profitable-on-paper companies owe tax they did not budget. The planning has to happen before year-end.

SaaS sales tax ignored until it compounds. Roughly twenty states tax software as a service, and economic-nexus thresholds are low. The exposure grows quietly until diligence or an audit finds it — and it is far cheaper to fix early.

R&D credits skipped by pre-revenue startups. Qualified small businesses can apply the credit against payroll taxes, which means real cash back before there is any income tax to offset.

Equity compensation handled late. ISO versus NSO, 83(b) elections with hard 30-day deadlines, and QSBS qualification under Section 1202 — each is nearly free to get right early and expensive to fix afterward.

Revenue quality before revenue growth. Diligence tests whether ARR is contracted, recurring, and correctly recognized. A clean deferred-revenue schedule tied to signed contracts is worth more in a raise or a sale than an extra quarter of growth on messy books.

The metrics buyers actually recompute. Net revenue retention, gross margin after hosting and support, CAC payback, and burn multiple. They will rebuild these from your data, so the definitions should be documented and consistent between board decks and the ledger.

Tax exposures that reduce purchase price. Unregistered SaaS sales tax in threshold states, misclassified contractors, and unfiled state income tax returns are the three findings we see most often — each becomes an escrow holdback or a price reduction. All three are cheap to fix early.

Equity and QSBS discipline. Option grants at defensible valuations, 83(b) elections filed within thirty days, and attention to the five-year QSBS holding period can be worth more to founders personally than any operating decision in the same period.