Tax Guard and Casca Partner to Streamline AI-Powered Lending with Verified IRS Data

Accelerating Commercial Lending with Intelligent Automation

On April 20, 2026, Tax Guard and Casca announced a strategic partnership to integrate verified IRS tax data into an AI-driven lending workflow. This collaboration aims to help financial institutions reduce manual labor by 90 percent while significantly increasing the speed of loan approvals. The integration addresses the core challenge of maintaining rigorous due diligence in an era where borrowers expect near-instant results. The partnership embeds Tax Guard's API directly into the Casca loan origination system. Lenders can now access source-of-truth tax transcripts instantly, which eliminates the need for manual document gathering and verification. This seamless flow allows for more confident credit decisions without the administrative bottlenecks that typically slow down small business lending.

Casca's platform is designed to process loans up to 30 times faster than current industry averages. By automating intake and analysis, banks can handle complex applications in minutes rather than weeks. This efficiency has been shown to increase full application conversion rates from roughly 8 percent to over 81 percent, significantly reducing application abandonment.

Grounding AI analysis in immutable IRS data mitigates the risk of document forgery and AI hallucinations. This ensures that the push for speed does not compromise the rigorous due diligence required for bank-grade underwriting. Rachel Sexton, VP of Product at Tax Guard, emphasized that while AI can accelerate lending, trusted data remains the essential foundation for risk control. Casca recently secured 33 million dollars in total funding, including a Series A led by Canapi Ventures in late 2025. Tax Guard, a Cogency Global company, has been a leader in tax risk assessment since 2009. Together, they are providing local financial institutions the tools needed to become the lenders of choice in their communities.