R&D Tax Relief Claims & Reviews

The assessment starts with a conversation with the people who did the work, not the finance team. We test each project against the statutory definition: a competent professional, a scientific or technological uncertainty, and an attempt to resolve it that went beyond routine adaptation. You receive a short written view on which projects qualify, which do not, and where the evidence is thin. If nothing qualifies, we say so, and the R&D eligibility assessment ends there.

Talk this through on a call

Innovate UK awards, local growth funds and customer-funded development all raise the same question: who is entitled to claim, and on what. The treatment changed when the merged scheme arrived, and assumptions carried over from the old SME rules are often wrong. Before a grant agreement is signed, we look at the grant and subsidised expenditure interaction on the specific project, including who bears the risk and who contracted the work. You receive a written position that the claim is then built on.

Talk this through on a call

Merged RDEC scheme claims are built from the ledger up: qualifying projects identified, costs traced to payroll and purchase records, and the credit computed and brought into the CT600 with the right disclosures. Contracted-out R&D and overseas expenditure rules are worked through project by project rather than assumed. The claim pack you receive includes the computation, the supporting schedules and the narrative, so the file can be picked up later by anyone, including HMRC.

Talk this through on a call

Enhanced R&D Intensive Support depends on a ratio: relevant R&D expenditure measured against total expenditure across the company and, where relevant, connected companies. We compute the intensity condition properly rather than estimating it, check the SME test, and confirm that the loss position supports a payable credit. Where a company narrowly misses in one year, we explain how the grace period operates so the claim strategy for the following period is clear. The ERIS computation sits alongside the merged scheme workings in the same claim pack.

Talk this through on a call

A good technical narrative is written with your engineers or scientists, not for them. We interview the competent professionals, identify the baseline that existed at the start, and describe what was uncertain, what was attempted and what was learned, in the structure HMRC's caseworkers expect to read. Marketing language and product features are left out. The result is a narrative that matches the cost schedule line by line, which is what an enquiry will test first.

Talk this through on a call

The cost schedule is where claims most often come apart under scrutiny, so each line is tied to a source: payroll records for staff, invoices for externally provided workers and subcontractors, and licence or usage statements for software, data and cloud computing. Apportionments are agreed with the people who managed the projects and documented, with the reasoning recorded. Every figure you sign off reconciles back to the accounts, so the cost schedule and apportionment can be reproduced years later if HMRC asks.

Talk this through on a call

Two filings now sit in front of every R&D claim. Pre-notification must reach HMRC within the notification window for a first claim or after a gap in claiming, and a missed window ends the claim before it starts. The Additional Information Form then has to be submitted before the CT600 that carries the claim, naming the projects, costs and agent involved. We diarise both dates from your accounting period, prepare the forms from the claim pack and keep the submission receipts on file.

Talk this through on a call

The director signs the CT600, not the boutique that prepared the claim, and the liability for an overstated claim sits with the company. A second opinion and claim review reads the narrative against the statutory tests, traces the cost schedule to your records and checks the merged scheme or ERIS computation. You get a written report listing what is sound, what is overstated and what is missing, so you can decide whether to file as drafted, revise, or withdraw before HMRC ever sees it.

Talk this through on a call

An R&D enquiry opens with a long list of questions and a short deadline. We take over the correspondence, agree a timetable with the caseworker and answer with evidence rather than assertion: project records, the competent professional's account and the cost reconciliation. Where a claim is rejected or an assessment raised, we set out the grounds for review and prepare the file for alternative dispute resolution or appeal if it cannot be settled by correspondence. R&D enquiry defence is offered on the same terms for claims prepared elsewhere.

Talk this through on a call

Patent Box is worth considering once a qualifying patent has been granted or is pending, provided the company has taken part in developing the invention. The work involves making the election in time, identifying the income streams that flow from the qualifying IP, and calculating relevant IP profits using the streaming rules and the R&D fraction that links back to your claim history. We model the benefit before the election is made and prepare the computation and CT600 entries each year it applies.

Talk this through on a call