Column Tax raises $5.1M to build the future of personal income tax software
Today, the team at Column Tax is thrilled to announce our $5.1M seed round and the launch of our next-generation income tax platform with Klover and Yotta, powered by Atomic Financial’s payroll connectivity.
Our mission at Column Tax is to democratize access to financial help and meaningfully improve people’s lives. Today, high net worth individuals in the United States have teams of accountants and lawyers to help them avoid taxes, while in the same country, 3/4 of Americans don’t have access to any financial or tax advice. Over 100M adults in the US report that they would not have the funds to cover a $1,000 emergency bill.
The tax refund plays a central role in the lives of those who live paycheck-to-paycheck. Every year, US taxpayers receive over $350B in refunds. For many folks, their tax refund is the single biggest check they see all year. And 73% of Americans report that they rely on their tax refund to pay off debt and catch up on bills every year.
We’ve seen countless examples of this in our conversations with users as we’ve been building Column Tax. Earlier this year, we met a father from Kentucky. After he filed his taxes, he told us he refreshed the IRS website every. single. day. waiting for his refund.
We live in a country where access to potentially life-changing tax advice is limited based on your income or zip code. It’s not right. And Column Tax is fixing it.
Introducing Tax Refund Unlock, year round access to your refund
Today, in addition to seed round funding, we’re also excited to announce the launch of our Tax Refund Unlock product in the Klover app, powered by the payroll APIs from Atomic Financial. By optimizing tax withholdings, Klover users will receive more of their earnings in each paycheck, reducing the need for loans or credit cards, enabling them to avoid overpaying in taxes.
We started this company in February (tax season) of 2021. As soon as we started digging in, it became clear that the status quo of once-a-year, overpriced filing products doesn’t serve everyday Americans.
There’s a better way: year-round, API-first tax products that live in the financial apps people are already using every day. Instead of once-a-year filing, your tax software should act like an accountant in your pocket — watching over your finances, computing your taxes in real-time, and helping you make the changes you need. Then, when it comes to tax season, filing your taxes should be a seamless, pain-free process.
We’re incredibly grateful to our investors who believe in our vision of a more accessible & transparent tax system. With our new $5.1M seed round, we’re ready to tackle this ginormous problem. If you want to work on the mother of all software architecture challenges (encoding the 75k-page federal tax code), believe that the status quo tax software should be better, or if you’re just curious about what we’re building, we would love to hear from you. Find us at jobs.columntax.com or team@columntax.com. We can’t wait to meet you.
Michael, Gavin, and the team at Column Tax
