Don’t miss out on R & D Tax Claims…..

With only around 13k SME businesses making a claim each year, many business owners are missing out on tax relief for their Research and Development costs.

Typically these are R & D costs incurred over the last two years of trading by Engineering and Manufacturing companies but also applies to many other types of companies such as those involved with chemicals, food production and software development.

If you are selling a business, this means you will definitely miss out if the claim has not been submitted, ideally 6 months prior to the business being sold. On the other hand, if you are buying a business (as a share sale) then you could stand to gain the tax relief if the claim has not been submitted by the previous owner.

In either case, whether or not you are buying or selling a business, R & D tax relief is still available on R & D activities for the previous two years of trading.

Are you eligible for an R & D tax refund?

  • Have you made bespoke products or customised products?
  • Have you developed any new products or involved with introducing them?
  • Have you made any environmental improvements to your processes?
  • Have you consistently made improvements to your manufacturing processes?
  • Have you carried out design work in-house or sub-contracted design?
  • Have you carried out prototyping or made models, patterns or tooling?
  • Have you developed or improved any software in-house?
  • Have you changed the composition of your products in response to changes in legislation?
  • Do you consider yourself to be a market leader in a product, process or technology?
  • Are you regularly problem solving to meet your customers’ needs?

If you have answered yes to one or more of these questions, you could be losing out on a major opportunity to claim an R & D tax refund.

How much is an R & D tax refund worth?

R & D tax relief is a tax incentive which reduces Corporation Tax.  R & D is accounted for by taking the R & D expenditure and enhancing it. Currently this is by 125% so £100k in R & D spend is put into the Corporation Tax return as £225k, therefore reducing the profit and the subsequent Corporation Tax. Retrospective claims will get a tax refund by reducing the amount of Corporation Tax payable; a loss making business will carry the losses forward or can cash in the credit at a reduced percentage. The claim can be for the two years prior to your current accounts e.g. A.N. Other Engineering Ltd Year Ended 31st March 2015 can claim for R&D activities since 1st April 2012 (as of 05.02.15). The claim for the Year Ended 31st March 2013 would need to be submitted to HMRC by 31st March 2015.

How can I secure an R & D tax refund?

Any business owner can apply for an R & D tax refund, subject to complying with the guidelines set out by HMRC.  For those businesses with a turnover in excess of £2m, Stirling’s R & D tax refund specialist can work on a “no win, no fee” basis with the following 6 simple steps, which is typically an 8 to 12 week process:-

  1. A brief initial meeting (a couple of hours of your time) with our R & D Tax Specialist
  2. A simple agreement form to be signed to engage services at no cost or risk to your business
  3. Data gathering exercise (a couple of hours of your time)
  4. Comprehensive report prepared by our R & D Tax specialist with revised tax computations
  5. Revised tax return submitted to HMRC by our R & D Tax specialist
  6. Substantial refund payable to you by HMRC

Your next step….

To find out more, please complete the form below:-