Levee wants to help freelancers find the right loopholes to cut their taxes

by John Siegel
September 27, 2016

Anyone who has ever spent time working as an independent contractor knows the nightmare of tracking costs. Whether it be calculating how much money needs to be put aside or determining business expenses, there’s a lot that can go wrong. But, with the launch of financial tracking app Levee, that all might change. 

The Downtown Los Angeles company, which launches out of beta today, bills itself as a game-changer for independent contractors everywhere. The app allows users to track expenses, determine deductions and even file taxes in a way which makes keeping track of money (almost) fun.

“What we're trying to create is the first automated tax planning app, and our goal is to reduce users' taxes by 50 percent or more,” said Argel Sabillo, co-founder of Levee. “If you're using our app, we can look for ways to reduce your taxes by capturing all your tax deductions, automating where your tax bracket is and letting users know when they're entering the next bracket.”

According to Intuit, 25-30 percent of companies utilize contingent workers. Moving forward, however, 80 percent of large corporations intend to substantially increase their use of contractors. Over the next decade, it is expected that contracted employees will eventually exceed 40 percent of all employees.

“As the economy grows towards a freelancer-heavy workforce, tracking expenses becomes not only an exercise in financial responsibility, but preparation for reporting taxes,” said Sabillo, a veteran accountant and proud DTLA resident. “If you are proactively tracking expenses throughout the year, and make payments to strategically influence the tax bracket and allows the user to qualify for different types of credits, then the user is effectively saving their money. We want to get to a point where we can automate that.”

 

The Levee team used the 2015-2016 tax season as a test run for the app, working hand-in-hand with independent contractors to identify pain points, while also bringing in additional funds to continue to bootstrap Levee's development.

“When you're filing your taxes, the biggest challenge is collecting all of the relevant information in one place,” said Sabillo. “For me, it's charitable contributions. I lose that stuff all the time, and I'm an accountant, so I should be good at this, but there isn't one place where you can put all of this information, and that's what Levee is built to fix.”

With the launch, the team is working towards partnering with coworking communities to offer members access to Levee. But as the startup shifts its focus towards partnerships and funding, Sabillo has one focus: helping people save money. 

"We really put a lot of thought into making the app as simple and intuitive as possible," said Sabillo. "We want to help users manage everything from a transaction to the e-filing."

Images via Facebook

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