R&D Tax Relief Blog

R&D Tax Relief for Subcontracted Work: HMRC’s Revised Interpretation Under Fire

5 December 2024

Recently, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) case of Stage One Creative Services Ltd (SOCS) vs. HMRC, has challenged HMRC’s stance on whether subcontracted or subsidised R&D can be considered as qualifying expenditure. This case has highlighted the growing tensions between HMRC’s revised interpretation o

Navigating a Tougher R&D Tax Credits Environment – And What You Can Do To Protect Your Claims

4 November 2024

For over two decades, the R&D tax credits scheme has been a cornerstone of the UK's strategy to foster innovation and support companies investing in research and development. The scheme was designed to encourage risk-taking in science and technology, offering substantial financial benefits to offset

Understanding the Merged R&D Tax Credit Scheme

8 March 2024

Introduction There are some significant changes to the R&D Tax Credits scheme that are going to be implemented soon. We wanted to keep you up to date on these changes and what it might mean for you. In a shift that is aimed at streamlining the process of claiming R&D Tax Credits, the UK government h

Spring Budget 2023: What It Means for Your R&D Claims

2 April 2023

A few interesting changes to the R&D Tax Credits scheme were announced on 15 March in the Spring 2023 Budget. We wanted to update you on these changes and give some guidance on how they may affect your future claims. Firstly, let’s get the ‘bad’ news out of the way: For the most part, the government

Case Study: How to successfully defend an HMRC enquiry into your R&D Tax Credits claim

19 January 2023

We’ve previously covered a few aspects of HMRC enquiries for R&D Tax Credit – for example the risk they pose to your business, why they happen, and how to avoid one. However, if you ever find yourself on the receiving end of one, what is the actual process of resolving it? In this article we take yo

How to Grow the Value of Your R&D Tax Credits Claims

18 April 2022

Introduction In this article we explore various ways you can ensure that you’re getting the most value from your R&D Tax Credit claims. In our experience, many companies that are claiming R&D Tax Credits are either under-claiming or preparing claims that are non-compliant in some way (which in turn

The Government Announces Significant Changes to the R&D Scheme to Combat Dubious Claims

6 January 2022

Introduction As we predicted in our recent article about the Autumn Budget , following a policy review, the Government has announced some significant changes to the R&D Tax Credits scheme via a report that they recently published. These changes will be included in the 2022-23 Finance Bill and will t

R&D Tax Credits and Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation (PCRT)

7 November 2021

PCRT is a framework created jointly by all the main UK accounting associations (e.g. ACC, CIOT and others) that sets out a set of obligations and best practices for accounting and tax professionals. Members who don’t comply with the PCRT rules can be brought to disciplinary hearings, fined or even s

Slow Growth of R&D Expenditure Raises Stakes of Government Consultation

16 August 2021

A recent Office of National Statistics (ONS) report revealed that rate of growth of R&D expenditure in the UK slowed in 2019 to its lowest rate recorded in almost a decade. R&D expenditure which is incentivised by the R&D Tax Credits scheme, Innovate UK grants and other schemes, grew by just 3% in 2

Low Quality R&D Claims - Why They Exist and How to Spot One

22 January 2021

Last year, a report from the Office of National Statistics found that low-quality R&D claims were the ‘main cause of lost tax’ in the UK. This has brought into focus the high number of R&D claims that are filed each year that don’t meet the required standards – either in claim preparation, eligibili

R&D Tax Credits for Civil Engineering:<br/>A whitepaper by Innovation Plus

2 November 2020

R&D Claim Statistics 2020

21 October 2020

It’s that time of year when we analyse this year’s R&D Tax Credits statistics, recently published by HMRC. Our aim is to give you some insights about the current state of the scheme and also some benchmarks that you can compare with their own R&D claim position. We have mostly focused on 2017-18 bec

HMRC Enquiry Defence for R&D Claims

16 June 2020

In recent years it has become important for companies to be prepared to respond effectively if HMRC raises an enquiry into their R&D Tax Credit claims. As the R&D scheme has grown in popularity and more companies have sought to benefit from the scheme, we have seen a parallel trend of HMRC putting i

The Impact of the Coronavirus Crisis to the R&D Tax Credit Scheme

8 April 2020

The interruption to businesses caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has raised concerns among companies that have recently filed an R&D claim or are planning to do so in the near future. Businesses are looking for clarity on issues such as processing and payment delays, conflicts between the

R&D Tax Credits Statistics - October 2019

7 November 2019

On the 10th October 2019 HMRC released the latest statistics relating to the R&D Tax Credit scheme. In this article we summarise the most important points in the report and track the most significant changes that have taken place over the past year. Finally, we explore in what these changes means fo

Current HMRC R&D Claim Processing Dates

24 October 2019

HMRC Processing Times for R&D Claim Payments July 2021 Update: The current processing times of SME claims is 28 days. There is no current guideline for processing of RDEC claims but in our experience, this tends to fall somewhere between 1 - 2 months. If you have any further questions, please email

R&D Tax Credits for Architects - A Whitepaper

27 September 2019

R&D tax credits for companies with international operations

30 May 2019

In this article, we will be exploring how a company’s R&D Tax Credits position is affected by various connections to overseas companies. We will be exploring the following cases: - UK company subcontracting R&D to a foreign company - UK company that is a subsidiary of a foreign company - UK company

R&D tax credits, subcontractors and externally provided workers (EPWs)

23 January 2019

Subcontracted R&D work is an area that frequently causes confusion for companies wanting to claim R&D tax relief. Companies that hire external parties to help them carry out R&D project often don’t have clarity on how to include those external costs correctly in their claims. And companies that are

HMRC Updates their Guidance on Assessing Software-Related Claims

17 January 2019

In the past 12 months, claim statistics show that there has been a significant increase in both the number of claims made and HMRC scrutiny of those claims. Our main specialism is in software R&D claims and this has been an areas of particular focus by HMRC. Following on from the 5th October 2018 up