A US taxpayer holding a foreign fund has to prove, year by year, whether it counts as a PFIC, then file a Form 8621 for each one. The firm was doing that by hand, one spreadsheet per client. It now runs as two self-serve products on one engine: a free Analyzer that answers the PFIC question, and a Calculator that turns a broker statement into filing-ready forms.
What we built
engine
The 75% income test and the 50% asset test, plus the country test, fund-domicile presumption and the §1298(b) exceptions. One verdict per ticker per year, with a preparer override on top.
calculator
From a broker statement to filing-ready Forms 8621: §1291 excess distributions spread over every share held, holding periods from FIFO lots, Parts I to V routed automatically, and PDFs laid out like the IRS form.
imports
Broker CSVs or a live brokerage connection through SnapTrade. Prices and fundamentals are proxied through Cloud Functions, cached and rate-limited, never called from the browser.
billing
Stripe checkout with coupons, a cart and pay-later invoicing. The Form 8621 output sits behind a paywall, and balances are server-side only, so no client can write to them.
growth
Two marketing sites built from one app, with ad click IDs and UTMs carried through signup, so the firm knows which campaign brought in which client.
judgment
Mergers, spin-offs and edge-case holding periods the engine cannot classify go to a review queue rather than a guess. Regression suites pin the tax math, and a green run gates every deploy.
Screens
A group of three holdings after one run: which are PFICs, and how many Forms 8621 are due for each tax year.
Every ticker with its year-by-year verdict and the income and asset test percentages behind it.
The income test, built from the company's reported financials. Any cell can be corrected by hand and the verdict recalculates.
The holder's own trades, rolled into cost basis, shares held and realized gains per year. Shown with demo trades.
Form 8621 routing per year, with the §1291 deferred tax and interest worked out for each sale.
The Analyzer: a free PFIC check that runs the income and asset tests per fund, per year.
The Calculator: from broker data to filing-ready Forms 8621, reviewed by the CPA.
Stack
ReactFirebaseCloud FunctionsStripeSnapTrade
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