Community News - Meet the Humble CPA Revolutionizing Tax Payments

You might be as surprised as I was to learn that a member of our local tax community is a closet tech entrepreneur, quietly building a company with billion-dollar potential. Even more remarkable, his company – which now includes a team of world-class tech specialists – is designed specifically for you, his fellow tax professionals.

A Common Pain Point for Tax Professionals

Larry Hasson, founder of Remitian

It all started when Larry Hasson, CPA and director at McIntyre and Associates, and his colleague Andrew Milne set out to address a persistent challenge in their practice: getting clients to pay their taxes correctly and on time.

For most firms, clients either pay their taxes themselves – using online banking, at a teller, or by mailing cheques – or the accountant steps in to help them. Each approach has its drawbacks. When clients pay directly, they must remember the deadline, enter the correct amount, select the right tax period, and draw from the appropriate account. Any missed or incorrect payments can result in costly penalties and interest and can trigger a cycle of calls between the client, their accountant, and the tax authorities to resolve the issue.

When accountants take responsibility – by holding post-dated cheques or, in some cases, accessing a client’s bank account – the process is centralized, but the liability and administrative burden shift to the CPA. The accountant must safeguard cheques, track deadlines, and ensure payments are made accurately. Some decided to manage these via a trust account on the behalf of their clients, but this is now a problem with Anti Money Laundering (“AML”) laws causing additional work for the CPA and exposing them to potential fines in case of staff errors.

Regardless of who is responsible, the process is fragmented and prone to error. According to the data available in North America, over $60 billion is collected annually in penalties and interest, much of it due to simple payment mistakes or missed deadlines.

The Idea: Automating Tax Payments

Larry and Andrew’s solution was to funnel their clients into one payment option and then build technology that would make it simple and error free. From this idea, “Remitian” was born, (formerly “TaxPay”).

Remitian automates tax payments for the accounting profession, digitizing the tri-party relationship between CPA firms, their clients, and governing bodies, with a strict focus on security and compliance. But what started as a straightforward idea ended up commanding hundreds of hours of dedication to accomplish.

Building Remitian During the Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, Larry, who was then 36, with a wife who is a medical doctor and two young children, used evenings and weekends to build the solution. He partnered with a local entrepreneur, Charles Segal, to build the first version. They poured through banking regulation to create a flow-of-funds diagram that was fully compliant. They had to figure out “payment rails”, “pull” versus “push” payment methods, and “automated clearing houses”

Meanwhile, Larry registered Remitian as a money services business with the AML authorities, secured a banking partner, and figured out how to integrate the system with the CRA. The latter required Larry to cold call multiple back-office CRA employees before he finally found the person who understood what he was trying to do.

Proving the Model

By 2021, Remitian was ready for real-world use. The first tax payments were made for Larry’s wife, himself, and then a few trusted clients. Larry personally guaranteed the system, making himself liable if any payments went NSF.

Every night after work and putting the kids to bed, Larry would reconcile each transaction from that day and audit clients’ CRA accounts. The system worked as intended, building his confidence in the prototype.

Larry and Andrew slowly brought more of McIntyre and Associates’ clients onto the platform, and, in 2022, they hired a salesperson to pitch Remitian to other firms. Early adopters included Zenbooks in Ottawa and Crowe Soberman in Toronto. Integrating with these firms and their respective tech-security protocols helped make Remitian even more robust.

Scaling Up

In 2023, they were ready to level up. They got a meeting with Solon Angel, founder of MindBridge, a pioneering AI company that specializes in financial transaction analysis. Solon had already provided them with some initial advice but, by 2023, he had left Mindbridge and was looking for his next project. They asked him to join their team.

Larry meets with the coders behind Remitian

Solon fully recognized Remitian’s potential and now envisions it growing to a billion-dollar business. During our interview, he explained the value of the product by asking why I pay an accountant and bookkeeper to manage my the tax filings of Blachford Tax Law, “It’s to outsource the hassle, right?”

I agreed.

“You shop on Amazon for the same reason,” he continued, “to avoid the hassle of traveling to the store and picking up your purchase, right?”

I agreed, again.

Solon continued, “The current model of tax payments, where a CPA or bookkeeper tells their client how much tax to pay but leaves the payment to the client, is like Amazon delivering your package two blocks away instead of right to your door. Larry’s product allows CPAs to finish the job. I experienced the same problem, and that’s why I got involved.”

Due Diligence and Leadership

Before accepting their invitation, however, Solon conducted a six-month due diligence process. His team contacted about 100 accounting firms across Canada and the U.S. to gauge demand; reviewed the code for scalability; double-checked the regulatory requirements; examined the company’s financials; and evaluated its patents.

When complete, Solon joined as CEO and invested in the company with additional capital from other investors. This funding allowed the company to further develop the platform and prepare for broader market adoption.

Going to Market

In summer 2024, Remitian quietly launched sales and began working with firms in multiple provinces and states. There are now many firms using the product, including major firms in the US under testing and deployment of the platform.

Remitian is also developing functionality to offer short-term loans for tax payments, helping users avoid penalties and interest when they don’t have the funds to cover their tax bills.

Larry and Solon having a business/ exercise meeting.

The company has already received a formal acquisition offer. Larry will not specify the amount but bashfully notes that it was enough for him to retire. Larry, Solon and the rest of the Board unanimously declined the offer, however, doubling down on their bet that Remitian will grow massively in the coming years.

The CPA Behind the Innovation

So, what enabled Larry to found a tech business that now has billion-dollar potential? Maybe it’s that he’s a “doctor who can code”. This is an analogy that Solon uses to describe the type of person he seeks to collaborate with on business projects. It describes an expert in their field who has the analytical skill and resolve to solve complex, specialized problems. For Solon, this ensures the product will be both relevant and effective for its target market.

According to Solon, Larry’s intelligence, curiosity, and determination make him the quintessential “doctor who can code”. He only worries that Larry is “too humble”, which sometimes prevents him from fully sharing his insights with the world.

Thankfully for Solon, Larry’s humility did not stop him from launching his tax payment solution. If those of us in the tax community no longer have to worry about our clients missing their tax payments, we will be thankful for that, too.