Research & Development Tax Credits (R&D)

In our dedicated assistance with R&D tax credits, we work with you to ensure that your claim will meet the HMRC guidelines. We can assist you with the preparation of the R&D calculation and supporting documentation. Alternatively, we can review your workings and the documentation involved when submitting a claim.

Expenditure rules 

We can help you identify qualifying expenditure to include in your R&D claim. Costs that can be claimed are:

Direct cost: Staff costs, consumables, externally provided workers (EPWs), subcontractors, software, and data & cloud computing costs.

Qualifying Indirect activities: These are costs from the same categories above that are associated with R&D activities but aren’t necessarily solving the scientific or technological activity. For example, staff time spent collating the data from a round of testing.
We review the costs that you have incurred to ensure that all qualifying expenditure has been claimed, resulting in a reduction to your corporation tax liability or, in some cases, receiving a tax repayment.

Documentation and compliance

Our approach to documentation is thorough and aligned with HMRC requirements.

Compliance records: We assist with the compilation of company’s tax returns and other documents for submission.

R&D report: We prepare a report which includes information about the company, the methodology applied, the amounts being claimed, the scientific and technological advances being sought, and details of the competent professionals leading the project. This is submitted alongside the company’s tax return to further support your claim, with the aim being to answer as many questions as possible that HMRC require or may require if they open an enquiry into the claim.

Claim notification form: For accounting periods beginning on or after 1st April 2023, a company who hasn’t submitted an R&D claim before or for the past 3 years must submit an advance claim notification. If this is required for your company, we will prepare and submit this to HMRC.

Additional Information form: All companies who submit a R&D claim are required to submit an additional information form before the actual claim is submitted. If this is not submitted, the claim is deemed invalid. We will prepare this alongside the rest of the R&D claim documents and submit this to HMRC, once you have approved the contents.

We cater to both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and larger companies, ensuring that you fully utilise the R&D Tax Credits scheme to support your projects.

Qualifying R&D activities could range from technological innovation, scientific investigation, testing, and analysis to developing new products that advance the field. We’ll help you identify relevant costs linked to R&D.

Staff costs: Salaries, wages, Class 1 National Insurance Contributions (NICs), company pension contributions, and reimbursed expenses relating to the R&D project.

Subcontractor costs: Payments to subcontractors for R&D activities.

Externally provided workers: Payments to external agencies for staff who directly engage in the R&D activities.

Consumable items: Materials and utilities consumed or transformed by the R&D process.

Software: Software licence fees or data licence costs that are directly associated with R&D projects

Payments to subjects of clinical trials: Payments made volunteers for participating in the trial.

Data and cloud computing costs: Costs involved in the purchasing of a data licence where the company does not obtain ownership of the data, and cloud computing costs.