Episode 2: R&D Tax Incentive with Justin Maxwell

Justin started the interview by saying that he is a proud husband and father. His family is the motivator for doing what he does.

He started as a schoolteacher. He wanted to give more to the world, provide more value, and do something big. He knew teaching school was not where he was going to finish, and he was constantly look for more ways to provide value. He read books on taxes. He took courses on taxes. He took courses on retirement accounts, insurance, real estate, how money works, all sorts of different courses. He found out the way the world works and how he could design the lifestyle he wanted versus being driven down a path that is corporate and the world. The way the normal world drives us.

He eventually ended up where he is now in an extremely specific tax niche called the Research and Development (R&D) tax incentives. The tax incentive that most CPAs, many small businesses, and many medium sized businesses are missing out on.

Stop focusing on Tax Deductions and focus on Tax Incentives and Credits

A lot of businesses and CPAs focus on tax deductions. They focus on lowering your tax liability and that is fabulous. You should have a CPA on your team that does focus on tax deductions, because that is going to save you money. But a tax incentive and a tax credit are different from a deduction, an incentive, and a credit is the government saying, if you do certain things, we are going to pay you money for doing it.

That is how Justin and his partner started their business. The R&D tax incentive was being missed.

Businesses were doing the R&D, they were doing the development, they were inventing things. As they were creating things, they were not taking advantage of the incentive, which the government wants to give. All this money is sitting in the government, they want to give you money for being inventive and innovative, but you are not taking advantage of the money.

That is why we started our company. We do not file taxes. We do not do deductions. All we do is incentives and credits. ~Justin Maxwell

Big Life Financial helps businesses get money back on average. They help small business owners get back between $10,000 and $30,000 a year. If the business is qualifying for this incentive and that money can go towards keeping employees doing more projects, the business grows versus the money being left in the government.

Justin has helped some businesses get upwards of $200,000. Most businesses fall between $10,000 and $30,000, but it could be much, much more. That is what the R&D Tax Incentive is. The government’s paying you to be an inventor, to be innovative and grow and, and change the world. Big Life Financial just tries to help the business recoup some of that cost.

How did Justin transition from teacher to entrepreneur?

Justin said Big Life Financial started out slowly and his partner and mentor had other businesses before including real estate. His partner had success coaching businesses. Justin leaned on him for knowledge and survival. Just being able to do understand what is going to be happening next in the different steps from entity developments to even Justin’s own taxes. Having someone to listen to him, on claims or when things were not going well. The mentoring is helpful. The mentor calmed his nerves. Justin imagines it would have been much more nerve wracking and take a lot more dedication to do it alone. Justin appreciates his partner and mentor very much.

How did Justin find his mentor?

Justin and his partner flipped houses. Justin started to have conversations with his partner. He even got Justin into some life insurance things. They heard about this R&D Tax Incentive and they just decided to form a business. Eventually the business came together. They had the same likes because they were both doing real estate. Justin got his life insurance license and started working with his partner. The business developed and blossomed.

What kind of business does Justin like to work with?

Not every business is going to qualify, but 95% of small businesses are not taking advantage of it. Not all that 95% are qualified, but the ones that are going to qualify, the people that we can help the most are businesses. The business is profitable and paying taxes. The business needs to be paying about $10,000 a year. If the business has employees, then the chances are even greater.

Now, obviously, the business must be doing research and development. The business must be doing something like pushing a product, further, creating a product, creating it, or pushing a system to an edge. You need to be developing either a product or a system or an idea or a way you are doing things in your business to make it work. Otherwise it is, you are not going to qualify. You must be doing those things. The government just does not give money away for free.

What are some examples of utilizing the tax incentive?

Creating prototypes is obvious but something that is not so obvious is let us say you have a secretary and you want to refine the way that she’s answering the phone and make that process more productive. You want her to be a salesperson as well. In your business, you would track and maybe implement a system that you want her to start implementing that type of tracking.

The business is qualified because you are specifically trying to improve a system within your business. So that type of process improvement gets missed a lot. A lot of times they are thinking it must be an invention or new manufacturing product. Engineering always qualifies. But those trivial things, like the secretary example. get missed a lot.

How many and what kind of businesses has Justin helped?

Justin has helped approximately 15 or so businesses in the past year. Recently they helped a dentist get back $96,000. Justin says you just do not know until you look, because dentists have a hard-core science business. They are always creating testing solutions for their clients. They qualify at a high rate. Justin enjoys helping those businesses. That is $96,000 that the dentist did not have in his business before and now he can choose to use it however he wants. To hire more employees or expand his business. It is a wonderful way for us to give money to businesses because we feel that business is going to use the money way more productive way than the money sitting with the government.

How should a business strategize to utilize this credit?

Justin said once you know that you qualify for the credit, you can start proactively plan how to get more back. You can hire more employees to help grow your business. Get more money back and have peace of mind. More money makes you more abundant and innovative because you know that the money will be coming, and it was not coming before.

Sign up for a FREE report at biglifefinancial.com that outlines the history of the R&D Tax Incentive and gives you examples, qualifying behaviors, and how much money you could potentially get back.

I feel like businesses that innovate in business, invent new things, are the best things for society, because it gives people things that can push our society and our race, the human race forward. ~Justin Maxwell

Justin agrees that it is nice that the government rewards you for innovation and his company helps you get that reward.