On 1st April 2020 Research and Development Tax Relief and R&D Tax Credits will be 20 years old and we thought we should be celebrating that fact.
It was the brainchild of Gordon Brown as a way to help boost Britain’s flagging investment in Research and Development. Initially aimed at Small and Medium Sized Entities who, back then, were eligible for the SME Scheme if they employed less than 250 staff and had either a turnover of less than €50m or gross assets of less than €43m.
A lot has changed over these 20 years so we thought we’d show you a timeline of how the Tax Relief has evolved and also why, even after 20 years, the best time to start claiming is now, regardless of what your business may have done in the past.
Not only did Rishi Sunak’s first budget deliver on the Conservative’s pledge to increase the RDEC Rate to 13% and promise a review on the inclusion of data and server costs in R&D Tax Relief claims of the future, but it also increased Government spending on R&D to £22b.
- The scope of eligible projects is almost unlimited, the only requirements for a claim are:
- The claimant is a limited company subject to corporation tax
- The claimant is a going concern
The claimant has undertaken a project which has been seeking to advance science or technology through the resolution of scientific or technological uncertainty.
We’ve worked with a number of companies over the last seven years across a wide variety of industries, some are obviously involved in Research and Development: Clinical Research; Motorsport Engineering; and Software Development but some have been less obvious such as Debt Collection and Music Rooms.
If you’ve been working on a project and banging your head on a brick wall trying to finish it, at any time over the last three years, or, perhaps a project that has completely failed, it might be worth having a chat with us. The Debt Collection business I referenced above spent £400k on a project that failed to deliver a workable solution and then spent a further £300k on a solution, they were able to claim back close to £200k. It’s amazing what you find when you scratch under the surface of a business.
To celebrate the fact that R&D is going to be 20, we’re going to offer the first 20 businesses that contact us and quote “R&D is 20” with a 20% discount from our standard fees. Give us a call to find out if there is a 20 year itch to be scratched in your business! You can find out in 15 minutes by booking a call with our director Simon Bulteel at www.calendly.com/simon-bulteel or contact us on
info@coodentaxconsulting.co.uk
