United States 
Australia 
Ireland 
United Kingdom 
Canada 
Singapore 
New Zealand 
Our Story
More than a decade of research, thousands of R&D projects, and one enduring idea: better claims begin with better evidence. TaxTrex is backed by global R&D tax advisory firm Swanson Reed.
Part One
An idea that started before the software
The ideas behind TaxTrex have been alive since 2012, when the first research paper was being written. The question was simple but important: why should businesses wait until the end of the year to reconstruct the story of their R&D when the people doing the work could capture that evidence as the innovation happened? That thinking became the foundation of TaxTrex. Since then, thousands of projects have been put through the platform, helping turn an academic approach to R&D substantiation into a practical system used on real R&D activity.
Part Two
How TaxTrex evolved
2012
Where the idea began
TaxTrex did not begin as a software product. It began with research. In 2012, work commenced on what would become the first paper in a continuing programme of research into R&D tax substantiation. The central idea was that the quality of an R&D claim depends heavily on the quality and timing of the evidence behind it. Instead of asking technical teams to remember months later what they tried, what they did not know, what failed and what they learned, the process could be designed to capture those facts progressively.
1 March 2013
The first research is published
That early work led to the Australian paper Substantiating an Experiment: The R&D Tax Conundrum, published in Taxation in Australia. The paper examined the practical problem of substantiating experimental activities for R&D tax purposes. It helped establish the principle that would remain at the heart of TaxTrex: evidence should follow the R&D process itself, rather than being reconstructed only when it is time to prepare a claim.
2015
Research becomes software
The research moved from theory into practice with the launch of TaxTrex in Australia. Backed by global R&D tax advisory firm Swanson Reed, the platform was designed to help businesses capture technical information in a structured and contemporaneous way. The aim was never simply to digitise a questionnaire. It was to create a better process for building the evidence behind an R&D claim.
1 July 2016
The research expands to the United States
Practical Documentation of QRAs for the R&D Tax Credit, by Cherie L. Jones, Adam A. Rogers and Damian J. Smyth, was published in The Tax Adviser. The U.S. research examined qualified research activities and practical documentation requirements, extending the original thinking into the U.S. R&D tax credit environment and helping shape the way TaxTrex approached U.S. projects.
2017
TaxTrex goes global
As TaxTrex expanded internationally, one lesson became increasingly clear: R&D incentives may share common concepts, but the rules, terminology and evidentiary expectations differ from country to country. TaxTrex therefore developed as a jurisdiction-specific platform, applying the same research-led philosophy while adapting the questions and documentation process to the requirements of each regime.
2018
Recognition for a different approach
TaxTrex was named a finalist for Accounting Innovator of the Year at the Fintech Business Awards. By this point, the concept that began with research was becoming a mature technology: capture the R&D story closer to the time the work occurs, structure the evidence around the relevant tax requirements, and reduce reliance on retrospective reconstruction.
31 January 2019
Canada joins the research programme
Practical Documentation of Qualifying Research Activities for the SR&ED Tax Credit was published in the Journal of Accounting and Taxation. The Canadian work extended the methodology into the SR&ED regime and continued the effort to connect technical R&D activity with the records needed to substantiate a tax claim.
16 March 2022
United Kingdom research published
The UK paper Documentation Required for Research and Development Tax Relief — “It’s All in the Papers” was published in TAXATION. The research examined documentation in the context of HMRC guidance and R&D tax case law, bringing another jurisdiction into the continuing TaxTrex research programme.
1 July 2024
New Zealand research
New Zealand research extended the approach to the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI). The work continued the same underlying philosophy developed years earlier: clearly identify the uncertainty, document the systematic approach used to investigate it, record what happened during the work, and connect that technical evidence to the expenditure being claimed.
30 January 2025
Singapore research published
Practical Documentation for Substantiating R&D Tax Claims in Singapore expanded the research programme again. By now, TaxTrex had evolved through years of research and practical use across different R&D tax systems, while retaining the same fundamental focus on contemporaneous, structured substantiation.
2025
Thousands of projects later, TaxTrex enters the AI era
By the time TaxTrex entered its next major phase, thousands of R&D projects had been put through the platform. That practical experience mattered. The platform had encountered different industries, technologies, project structures and documentation challenges across multiple tax regimes. TaxTrex was re-engineered around AI to build on that experience — helping users organise evidence, identify gaps, work through jurisdiction-specific questions and assemble the technical story of an R&D project with less administrative burden.
15 December 2025
Ireland research published
Developing a Substantiation Strategy for the Irish R&D Tax Credit extended the research programme to Ireland. More than a decade after the original work began, the same question remained relevant: how can businesses create a stronger, more systematic record of R&D rather than trying to recreate it after the event?
2026
The next generation of TaxTrex
Today, TaxTrex is evolving from structured documentation software into intelligent R&D tax infrastructure. AI-assisted workflows and connections between technical project information and financial records are designed to make substantiation more continuous, consistent and easier to review. The technology is very different from what was imagined when the first paper was being written in 2012. The idea behind it is not: capture the evidence while the innovation is happening and build the claim from the record, rather than the memory.
Part Three
One idea. Thousands of projects. More than a decade of development.
Backed by global R&D tax advisory firm Swanson Reed, TaxTrex has never been a product built around a single tax form or a single year's rules. Its development has followed more than a decade of research into how R&D is identified, documented and substantiated across Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore and Ireland. Thousands of projects have since passed through TaxTrex, giving the platform a practical history alongside its academic foundations. From the first research work in 2012 to today's AI-assisted platform, the objective has remained remarkably consistent: help businesses create a clearer record of the experimentation, uncertainty and technological progress behind their R&D — while that work is still happening.