Two thirds of all taxpayers need help with their taxes.
Despite the availability of Do-It-Yourself tax tools, the vast majority of people prefer to trust an expert to prepare and file their tax returns. So why is it still so hard to get professional and responsive help at a reasonable price?
North America, alone, represents a market of 100 million practitioner-filed tax returns, annually. With tax laws getting more complicated every year, consumers want modern companies to step up and help.
Still using Dad’s accountant?
If so, you are probably paying his tax firm’s overhead. Why? Because most traditional tax firms are not able to prepare tax returns efficiently. They’re spending hours organizing documents and passing your file from one preparer to the next. They’re using outdated tax applications and are bogged down with data entry. On top of that, they have large office spaces and burdensome expenses. They have no choice but to bill you by the hour or estimate, to eke out a profit. You’re paying extra for their overhead and inefficiencies.
Our mission is to modernize the way taxes are prepared.
After working within the tax industry ourselves, we saw numerous inefficiencies and knew there had to be a better way. We leveraged our deep expertise in finance and tech to build a tax-intelligent cloud platform, enabling tax preparation to be done quickly, securely and professionally.
We’re doing away with the need to spend hours organizing your documents and then figuring out how to get them to your accountant. We’re also not a fan of inflated tax bills at the end of tax season and being charged extra by a tax firm for routine preparation tasks. Take that, status quo.
Never mind the stodgy old tax firm.
We’re a digital-first company for a modern era where better technology = better service at a better price.
How to kill stodgy:
1.
Re-invent the customer experience.
Tax organizers belong in a museum. They’re old, clunky and nobody uses them anyway, especially taxpayers. Asking customers to upload all of their slips isn’t much better and it’s completely redundant. Our proprietary technology replaces both methods with a modern experience that is long overdue. We didn’t make old new again: We trashed it and built something delightful instead.
2.
Automate the boring stuff.
Humans are terrible at manual data entry. They’re slow and error-prone. Plus, they’re incapable of performing anything else while they’re doing it. Like responding to customers. We built our back-office from scratch to enhance customer service, not hinder it. Our workflow automation means our professionals spend more time where it matters - adding value to tax services and being responsive to our customers.
3.
Deliver transparently.
Lower fees. Flat-rate pricing. Quick turn-around. Unthinkable for a traditional tax firm. A manifesto for us. We know that consumers are spoiled for choice when it comes to financial services today. Winning requires better service AND better value. This is why being a modern company is a win-win for us and our customers - we both share in the reward.
Technology so advanced, it hides in plain sight.
Modern consumer experiences should be enabled by technology, not dominated by it. Our 100% proprietary tax platform was built for a single purpose - to deliver the best customer experience possible. That means revolutionary innovations like our Zero Upload design, which presents taxpayers with their slips in advance, meaning they don’t need to scan, upload or send any documents to their accountant.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
- LEONARDO DA VINCI
We also forged our back-office operations to run on the Salesforce cloud, to achieve lightning-quick workflows and rock-solid stability. Every day, we continue to innovate. We invest thousands of hours, so that our customers need only invest a few minutes.
We’re proud of being different.
At Blackspark, we take a different approach.
We’ve learned that invention and value creation come from looking at the world from another point of view. If you really want to change the old way of doing things, you have to challenge yourself. To make a difference, you have to be different.
Different means re-designing outdated processes that waste money. Different means getting rid of manual tasks that waste time. Different means breaking stuff and putting it back together. Stronger. Faster. Better.
We provide a 100% remote service, allowing our customers to have their taxes done without leaving the comfort of their own home. We built customized technology to re-invent the process of collecting taxpayer data. We created the world’s most automated tax preparation back-office. Oh, and we aim to respond to our customers’ questions within minutes, even during tax season. We’re different.
Who we are.
Blackspark is the epitome of a modern, digital-first company comprised of world-class financial experts and the best technology talent.
Innovating in FinTech today requires speed, agility and domain experience. Our talented team of strategists, tax professionals, developers and marketers have previously worked at companies such as Bell, Ernst and Young, and BlackBerry. With close to 80 years of collective experience, we’re not just keeping up with the rate of change - we’re the ones pushing the pace.
We put our money where our mouth is.
We have invested our own money, time and resources to develop the world’s most modern process for preparing tax returns. We use it for our own friends and families, and Canadians across the country. We’re confident that once you file with us, you won’t want to go back to the old way.
Blackspark is proud to be a minority-led and minority-owned company.
Ray Tavares
Chief Executive Officer
Vic Arora
Managing Director, Client Services
Charles Baptiste
Chief Technology Officer