I love this sort of thing: a professional services business which does exactly one thing, very very well, by software-ing the heck out of it. https://collegetaxrefunds.com/
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What's the problem? There's a particular tax credit that students have available, which is worth ~$1.5k, which affects too small of a percentage of the client base for H&R Block et al to actually design business processes that apply for it successfully. Thus this company.
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"You got your taxes done. They're probably wrong and cost you $1.5k extra. Upload them here; we'll tell you if they're fixable. If yes, either pay $300 now or $400 when you get your refund check."
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Relative to almost all tax-adjacent businesses they've got one *fascinating* advantage: they are intentionally set up to file *corrected* returns, not original returns. That's one of the most brilliant hacks I've ever heard of.
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Seriously if you think you appreciate how brilliant it is think longer because there are *layers* to it.
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I'm not even sure I have them all but, minimally: 1) Every large tax provider is a source of operational leverage for you. 2) You don't have to understand *anything* but the one credit and your only edits flow through that one. 3) This keeps your costs predictable and low.
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4) This is the big one: Unlike *every other tax professional in the world*, yours is not a seasonal business. All taxes filed in the last 3 years are in the in the amendment window; you can win custom from any (college-attending) filer in January through December.
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This is not a business about *preventing* mistakes, which would need to beat H&R Block to the educational punch and have every student understand this issue prior to filing. It is about *identifying and correcting* mistakes, which entirely flips the economic model.
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Also note that the marketing message can be "Tell your friends that all they have to do is upload a photo of their tax return and a check will arrive for a bit over a thousand dollars in a few weeks. We will happily work on contingency."
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Replying to @patio11
Another layer: the people who would apply for this tax credit MOST LIKELY don’t have personal accountants that they have at least 1-4 years of repeat business. Now, how do you lock them in year 5-20 or get an assignment fee?
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Replying to @prestonholland6 @patio11
If they did have a personal tax accountant, they could do it 1x and bring the learnings back to their personal accountant
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