Tax Guard, a Cogency Global company and the first provider of real-time IRS tax data services, has partnered with SPARK, a faster, simpler loan origination platform for the digital age.

As AI becomes more advanced, so do fraudsters’ tactics. In this MarketWatch piece, Tax Guard CEO Hansen Rada explores how generative AI is transforming fraud prevention — and why human oversight and verified data are still the strongest defense against financial scams.

SBA lending surged 20% in 2025, hitting a record $37.3 billion. Major players like Live Oak and U.S. Bank credit resilient small business demand and strong borrower confidence for the boom. “People that have the capital structure and the sales infrastructure to do that will continue to grow in this environment,” – Pieter Leenhouts

With the federal government shutdown halting new SBA loan approvals, small businesses are feeling the strain. Lenders, including insights from Tax Guard’s VP of Sales, Pieter Leenhouts, explain how they’re preparing to move fast once operations resume.

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The probationary employees were going to bring “younger, new people into the organization that hopefully would have a longer shelf life or career,” said Hansen Rada, CEO of Tax Guard, a provider of IRS tax data services.

“I’ve seen numbers of 20%, I’ve seen numbers of 30%, I’ve seen numbers of 50%,” said Tax Guard CEO Hansen Rada. “It’s really difficult to tell what is true, and I don’t think anybody knows, because the proposal has been private, so there is definitely a giant question mark as to how strong the IRS will be going forward.”

“The Treasury put out a statement that if there were a shutdown, they were going to fund the IRS through April 30, with all of it 100% open, which means it would not cause a problem for the f iling season, but then after April 30, the IRS would go to zero,” said Tax Guard CEO Hansen Rada. “Based on the Treasury’s announcement yesterday, it looks like they would get through the filing season and then shut it all down.”

“There will be lending that will stop through the SBA,” says Hansen Rada, the co-founder and CEO of Tax Guard, which provides real-time tax data to lenders. “But I think the greatest impact will be a long tail, which is the IRS then having to catch up during tax season.”