Big news for NY startups! QSBS is here to stay.
From @politico: the idea now “seems to be moot” following strong, coordinated engagement from across the tech community—including a @TechNYC letter with 1,600+ founders, early employees, and investors.
This is a clear example of what’s possible when the ecosystem shows up together. We’re grateful to everyone who spoke out and helped ensure policymakers understood what was at stake.
New York remains the best place to build. 🗽
@shaig@TechNYC Caught a lot of the tax community off guard too as we’re middle of tax filing season. New York has built a world class tech ecosystem, so disappointing to see this proposal get this far.
New York is about to make a massive mistake. The NY State Senate is advancing a proposal to decouple from federal QSBS (Section 1202) — the tax provision that lets startup founders exclude gains on qualifying exits. If this passes, founders would owe 10-13% in combined state and city tax on exits that are tax-free at the federal level and in nearly every other major tech state. Even worse: it's retroactive to January 1, 2025. This comes right as the federal government just expanded QSBS benefits and New Jersey moved to full conformity. New York wants to go in the opposite direction.
As a seed investor in NYC who has backed hundreds of companies, I can tell you: founders are mobile. If New York becomes one of the most punitive states for startup exits, the best founders will simply build somewhere else — and the jobs, tax revenue, and innovation will follow. NYC has built something special over the last two decades. This proposal puts it all at risk for a short-sighted revenue grab.
If you're a founder, investor, or anyone who cares about the NYC tech ecosystem — please sign the TechNYC open letter before Monday below 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾
Keep building, NYC 🗽
So far, my most-used app in 2026, by far, is Apple's Notes app. I find myself writing quick ideas or prompts in Notes and then sending those to Runway or Claude Code, depending on what I want to do.
It's really just about speed. Notes is the fastest way to get a sentence or two down. And now a sentence or two is often all you need to kick off something. Notes has accidentally become the starting point for most of what I make.
Bringing in an accountant before your seed sounds early. Waiting until after your Series A to fix 83b elections, misclassified contractors and co-mingled expenses? That's a 3-6 month cleanup before your first finance hire adds any value.
Akshay from @ShayCPA broke it down👇
💡Insightful article - Anecdotally I’m seeing similar trends.
The U.S. has long wooed European startups with a deeper pool of capital and a more risk-tolerant culture. But with AI’s hefty upfront costs, the pull of America is greater than ever. https://t.co/HfxzHvLO8U
Listening to @TaxFoundation podcast on SALT updates based on OBBBA - Apparently some states may decouple from Federal when it comes to Section174 R&E Expensing? Curious which States those are? #TaxTwitter#Section174
AICPA presses IRS for guidance on domestic research costs in OBBBA to provide certainty to small businesses that have not filed their income tax returns for the 2024 filing period. https://t.co/DhrFuxiGmC
Sec. 1202 : Raised gross asset test: From $50M to $75M (inflation adjusted from 2027). This will allow more companies to qualify for QSBS, even those that may have been in operation for a few years or spun out of an existing company.