Here are the three steps I’ve taken to succeed in “dark” times:

Identify When the Economy Will Take a Turn

• Wall Street. Look for rapid drops in major markets for consecutive amounts of time. When this happens, most investors start to sell and take higher losses, which in turn creates great opportunities for savvy investors. The common phrase associated with smart investing is, “Buy low and sell high.”
• GDP. Gross domestic product is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. When GDP is continuously dropping, it’s a sign that a downturn is close.
• Loan ability. Talk to your banker on a regular basis; look for them to tell you that they aren’t loaning much and qualifications are becoming more obtuse. When banking opportunities start running dry, it squeezes the economy as well as business owners. This can create great strategic opportunities if you have money in the bank and are looking to buy out competition.
• Inflation. This means your dollar can’t buy as much in a short period of time as it could before.

When all of these signs occur, there’s a strain on businesses and consumers, giving strategic business owners great opportunities to buy.

Prepare Yourself to Take Advantage

R&D Tax Credits

Tax credits give you discounts on federal and state taxes, if you satisfy all of the qualifications. (Not all states have a credit, so check your state’s laws.)

The R&D tax credit has been around since 1981, applying only to income tax, until recently. Starting in the 2016 tax year, the R&D tax credit can be used to offset payroll tax for qualifying startup companies. Previously, the credit was only allowed to offset income tax, which most startups don’t pay. Now, early-stage companies who haven’t been profitable don’t have to miss out; they can claim the credit too. These changes provide substantial competitive advantages and growth opportunities via tax savings and cash flow. Previously these options were utilized almost exclusively by Fortune 500 firms. These larger firms have received billions in credits annually over the last thirty years. Now startups can access those same credits.

On average, the credit equals 6-10% of a company’s R&D cost, including but not limited to wages, supplies and even contract researchers. The maximum cap annually is $250,000, which means your company could save $1.25 million over five years.

Does My Company Qualify?

To receive the R&D tax credit, your company must:

• Have $5 million or less in annualized gross receipts (that includes companies with no declarable income yet)
• Have five or fewer years of gross receipts
• Have its R&D evaluated and determined valid

Be prepared to devote some time and resources to the testing process. Getting your R&D evaluated and approved is a four-part process. Each part has extensive regulations and intensive documentation:

1. Technical uncertainty: What’s being made new or improved?
2. A process of experimentation: Were alternatives explored? Was modeling done?
3. Technological in nature: Are you using hard sciences?
4. Qualified purpose: Are you making or improving a product as it relates to performance, ability, function or quality? (One caveat: Software and other similar developments that are for internal use only don’t qualify; the work must benefit the public.)

The fields for R&D are varied and popular, and many startups will qualify, especially those in app development, platform design, cryptocurrency, robotics, VR hardware and software, drones and wearables. (A clarifying note: A company that was founded before 2012 can still qualify if it did not generate any gross receipts. For example, a research-intensive firm might have existed for years before generating receipts.)

Using this credit will probably increase the chance of an audit, so make sure you enlist a qualified tax advisor to claim this credit correctly. After your company qualifies for the R&D validation, claim the credit on the annual income tax return, then monetize the credit on subsequent quarterly payroll tax returns. Even factoring in any potential risk, there is a strong positive outlook on the total gains to be had. Firms who think they have eligible activity or want to develop activity as a result of the incentive should move soon to best fully capture the returns possible.

A version of this post originally appeared here.

The anxiety is already palpable (and should be, given taxes are due on March 15 for S corps and partnerships and April 17 for C corps and individuals). I reached out to several of Paro’s tax experts to ask what businesses large and small need to focus on to make it through the season unscathed. Here’s what they said:

It’s Time to Change Your Bad Tax Season Habits

Every year, the same thing happens the closer it comes to tax-filing time: Tax preparers get a bunch of last-minute, frantic clients freaking out about getting their taxes paid on time. Business owners throw tax experts every document they can find, get frustrated when the tax preparers ask follow-up questions and request additional information (which they often don’t have prepared) and end up filing late because they need a new bookkeeper and accountant to fix a multi-month (or sometimes multi-year) mess — not to mention paying out the wazoo for tight turnarounds.

It’s time to get ahead of this headache. How? Preparation is absolutely key to tax success. So to help you prepare, we’ve compiled the 13 most critical pieces of information you need to provide your tax preparer with. If you know right now that you do not or will have some of these elements, talk to your finance team, understand why and come up with a plan in the coming few weeks to get these items together.

13 Critical Items Your Tax Preparer Needs From You

1. Trial balance that reflects balances in each of your company’s general ledger accounts
2. Reconciled statements for the entire year, including bank, investment, credit card and loan accounts
3. Documentation for transactions within the past year that are especially unique to prior years
4. Fixed assets purchased in the given tax year, with information necessary for depreciation, including the year put into service, whether asset was new or used, cost and weight (if a vehicle)
5. Fixed assets disposed of in a given tax year, with the same details as needed for asset purchases
6. Loan documentation that reflects principal versus interest payments
7. Payroll tax returns for each quarter with form 941
8. Sales tax returns from throughout the year
9. Aging details for accounts receivable and accounts payable
10. New rental, equipment lease or utility agreements and related prepaid expenses
11. Distributions to partners or owners
12. All 1099 contractor information (1099s were due January 31! Here’s what you need to know.)
13. And, finally, if you’re filing taxes on a cash basis but like to analyze your business on an accrual basis, be prepared to explain any adjustments that the tax accountant needs to back out to file on a cash basis.

If you’re looking at this list and feeling a sense of dread, chances are your bookkeeper and accountant have some work to do before they make the handoff to your tax preparer. Reach out to them and ask for the plan. If they don’t have one or take a week to respond, it’s probably time to move on and find someone who gives your business the time and priority it deserves. Above all, know that you’re not alone in this. There’s always someone worse off from a tax standpoint than you. That I can promise.

Blockchain was originally designed to facilitate transactions of the cryptocurrency bitcoin. But bitcoin was only the first large-scale application of the blockchain platform. Blockchain technology has immense potential beyond just cryptocurrency transactions. It could completely change financial and business transactions and real estate deals.

From a tax perspective, blockchain has the ability to disrupt global taxation.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is essentially a decentralized transaction ledger, in which digital information can be distributed and viewed but not copied or altered. As a distributed database, it lives across a network of computers, which makes it exceptionally secure.

Blockchain stores transaction records in groups called blocks. Each block is time-stamped and added to a chain, linked to the previous block. It is completely transparent and cannot be changed, eliminating the need for a third party audit.

A transaction can involve money, contracts, records and other information. Therefore, blockchain is not limited to financial transactions but can be used for anything of value.

The Potential Impact of Blockchain on Businesses

Since blockchain technology fundamentally changes how transactions are made and recorded, the accounting industry will likely see the biggest impact. But the disruption will not stop there. Real estate transactions could be greatly simplified using blockchain technology instead of manual paperwork. Distributed ledgers provide an easy way to trace the origins of goods (for example, fair trade products), thus simplifying supply chain audits.

In the sharing economy, blockchain could enable true peer-to-peer transactions, thus eliminating the intermediary, like an Uber or Airbnb. Blockchain technology could take crowdfunding to the next level, potentially creating crowd-sourced venture capital funds. Using smart contracts, creators can protect intellectual property and sell creative work directly to their audiences online. Client verification, often a cumbersome manual process, could be simplified through cross-institution verification based on blockchain. This could also have applications in anti-money laundering efforts. In politics and governance, a distributed database could make results fully transparent and publicly accessible.

How Blockchain Could Transform Taxation

Blockchain’s core characteristics give it significant potential for use in taxation.

Transparent Real-Time Information

Businesses could see less cost and more efficiency, as blockchain technology could automate the manual processing of payroll tax, employment tax and any transaction-based taxes. Instead of self-reporting, every single transaction would be recorded and paid immediately, ensuring almost 100 percent compliance.

Blockchain could also help with verifying transfer pricing and valuation. Using this technology would make it easier to value what is the “fair market price” between a willing buyer and willing seller to ensure all related party transactions are valued appropriately. It would help make valuations more of a science than an art and keep these valuations supportable and up to date.

Increased Security and Fraud Protection

With blockchain incorporated into the tax collection process, audit detection occurs automatically and instantaneously. The digital ledger cannot be tempered with once the data is entered. Any changes are fully transparent to all identified network users, thus limiting the potential for errors and fraud.

Tax authorities would also benefit from that. The transparency inherent to blockchain would change how tax audits are performed. Some governments, such as Luxembourg, have already started to experiment with blockchain-based solutions for tax filings and audits.

While blockchain has its roots in cryptocurrencies, it has the potential and trajectory to profoundly impact financial services, taxation and global business in general. This is something that will impact 2018 and beyond. So the people who get involved now in learning, understanding and developing this technology and these solutions are not only boosting a trend, but impacting our society for years to come.

A version of this post originally appeared here.