Research and Development

Overview

The R & D Corporation Tax Relief Scheme was initially introduced back in 2000 to Small and Medium sized enterprises (SME) as a key part of the government’s strategy to promote innovation and economic growth within the UK.

This industry invests a huge amount in IT infrastructure to obtain competitive advantage in a very fast moving competitive market. The innovations can be exciting, cutting edge and very advanced. We can provide generic examples of our claims if requested, but will never publish our client’s names or their projects as we believe that this is their intellectual property. We know that we are the professionals to be able to facilitate a claim, but we will not provide details of their competitive advantage or company advancements to their competitors. Privacy and our clients business are of utmost importance to us, more so than using their innovations as a marketing tool for our practice. Our professional work will speak for itself.

Do I have a legitimate claim?

Each company and its activities have to be reviewed on a case by case basis. However, the key criteria for a potential R & D claim is identifying expenditure spent on an activity or project which is solving “technical uncertainty”. Usually the expenditure involved would include the advancement of science and technology in a particular field. In the UK the considerable IT developments in industry can often be overlooked as technical advancement, even though we are considered to be a technology hub. A project that seeks to create a process, material, device, product or service through scientific or technological changes or use technology to make an appreciable improvement to an existing process, is likely to qualify or include some R & D activities.

What are the potential benefits?

R&D tax relief is given in one of the following two ways:-

An enhanced deduction
A payable credit (conditions apply from 2020, see note below).

Enclosed is a table of historical and current R & D rates. This means the amount of relief given depends on when the R&D expenditure was incurred. The top two lines refer to SMEs only:-

Our dedicated team of R & D tax specialists will identify, target, compile and submit your claim to HMRC. Throughout the process we will provide ongoing support and updates.

Relief	From 1 January 2018 onwards	From 1 April 2015	From 1 April 2014	From 1 April 2013	1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012	1 April 2008 to 31 March 2011
Enhanced deduction rate	230%	230%	225%	225%	200%	175%
Payable credit	14.5%	14.5%	14.5%	11%	12.5%	14%
Above the line credit (large companies)	12%	11%	10%	9.1%

Please note that from April 2020, the amount of payable R & D tax credit that a qualifying loss-making company can receive in any tax year will be restricted to three times the company’s total PAYE and NIC liability for that year. This is described as a measure to prevent abusive and fraudulent claims.

WHA’s Approach

We pride ourselves in providing a step-by-step support process when applying for R &D Tax Credits.

We will communicate with you and HMRC directly via a specialist member of our team who will proactively handle your claim. We will only prepare a claim if we believe that the project does qualify under HMRC and BIS guidelines and this therefore means we have an exceptionally high success rate, as we are not tarnished with a history of spurious claims.

What you can expect?

Meeting: An initial meeting to gain a better understanding of your business and to discuss a potential R&D relief claim. We will outline the work we will undertake on your behalf, the approximate timeframe for completion and the processes to get there.
Information Analysis: We will review the potential R&D activities once you have provided the relevant financial and narrative information to potentially qualify and quantify the claim. This may involve further meetings and correspondence to prepare the R & D calculations and supporting reports for submission to HMRC
Submission & Review Process: We will draft the final documents, review and then submit to HMRC for their review and approval. You have only 2 years from the year end in which the expenditure was incurred to make a claim to HMRC. If the expenditure was incurred in the year ended 31/12/2018 you would therefore only have until 31/12/2020 to make the claim. It is possible that from reading this you realise that you have possibly have incurred such expenditure in prior years and therefore it is possible for us to still make a claim, providing it is still in the acceptable filing time limits.
HMRC Review and Approval: HMRC have a number of dedicated specialist R & D units, who will review the claim. We will have direct contact with them to clarify any additional queries. Within a few weeks we should have confirmation of the claim.

Travel Industry

WHA have filed a large number of claims, with the most relating to IT projects in the travel industry.

This industry invests a huge amount in IT infrastructure to obtain competitive advantage in a very fast moving competitive market. The innovations can be exciting, cutting edge and very advanced. We can provide generic examples of our claims if requested, but will never publish our clients names, their projects as we believe that this is their intellectual property. We believe that we are the professionals to be able to facilitate a claim, but not provide details of their competitive advantage or company advancements to their competitors. Privacy and our clients business are of utmost importance to us, more so than using their innovations as a marketing tool for our practice. Our professional work will speak for itself.

Interested? Get in touch