Senior R&D Tax Manager, Kruze Consulting, helping Pre-Seed through Series C venture-backed startups identify and claim federal and state Research and Development (R&D) tax credits to turn qualified research spending into cash back in the business.
Who is Karen Yates?
Karen Yates runs the Research and Development (R&D) tax credit practice at Kruze Consulting, where she has spent four and a half years focused entirely on startup R&D credits. She manages the team that determines client eligibility, separates qualified from non-qualified expenses, files the tax forms, and ensures founders actually receive their payroll tax refunds. Founders come to her to convert spending they already do into recoverable cash.
Credentials and Education
- Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Wayne State University
Experience
As Senior R&D Tax Manager at Kruze Consulting, I lead our specialized Research and Development (R&D) team in helping high-growth startups extract maximum value from federal and state tax incentive programs. In my almost five years at Kruze, my daily focus centers on meeting with clients to assess eligibility, determining qualified and non-qualified expenses, and carrying the claim all the way through the paperwork and payroll coordination so the refund actually lands.
The R&D tax credit is nuanced due to the complex Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax code behind it. Understanding those rules and the implications of getting them wrong is what lets us file accurate credit claims backed by a substantial R&D study. To protect our founders, I oversee the delivery of detailed, audit-ready R&D study reports built to withstand strict IRS scrutiny and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) due diligence.
A strategic conversation I typically have with founders centers around the tradeoffs of keeping R&D domestic in the United States versus using lower-cost foreign contractors. While offshore engineering reduces near-term burn, foreign labor expenditures are ineligible for the US federal R&D credit and trigger distinct Section 174 amortization requirements. I advise leadership teams on how their technical hiring decisions directly shape their corporate tax liabilities and Qualified Small Business (QSB) tax credit capacity, ensuring they optimize both global talent strategy and capital efficiency.
Areas of Expertise
- R&D tax credits for startups
- Section 174 of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax code
- Implications of acquisitions and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) due diligence for the R&D tax credit
- Qualified Small Business (QSB) eligibility for the payroll tax credit offset
- Qualified versus non-qualified R&D expense determination
- Domestic versus foreign R&D and its effect on credits and tax liability
If your startup is spending on engineering or product development, you are likely leaving cash on the table. Our R&D team can tell you what qualifies and what it is worth. Book a strategy session with Kruze Consulting to get a real read on your credit.