With just 4 working weeks to Christmas there is still time to prepare and submit a claim for R&D tax relief. We’ve recently submitted a claim for a £26k cash payment for a client – imagine what a lovely Christmas present that would be for your business!
HMRC’s recent report shows that more and more small and medium sized companies are making R&D claims, generating significant tax savings of up to almost 25% of qualifying expenditure and, in some cases, cash payments from HMRC. Nevertheless, the government believes the relief is still massively underclaimed, and the stats show smaller companies are less likely to claim than larger ones.
One of the barriers which prevents companies claiming the relief to which they are entitled is a misconception regarding the amount of time and effort a company needs to invest to prepare and submit a claim. Often smaller companies have less accounts resource to devote to tax issues but ask yourself how long it would take, and how much effort would be required, to generate profits equal to the tax savings available.
Shorts' Radius team have a simple three-step process where we work with companies to prepare their claims as quickly and efficiently as possible, taking up the least amount of company time. After an initial discussion, either in person or over the phone, to establish whether a company has a claim, we then hold a meeting with the technical experts at the company to gather the information required, which we take away and use to produce the claim documents. HMRC aims to process SME claims within four to six weeks so, if you act fast, there is time to get a claim submitted and have the cash in your bank account in time for the new year.
Two-year deadline for claiming
Christmas is even more important for companies with a December year-end as 31 December 2018 marks the two-year deadline for submitting claims for the 2016 year-end. With Friday 21 December likely to be the last working day of 2018 for many companies, we would urge anyone who has a December year-end and who hasn’t yet made a claim for 2016 to contact us for a quick chat to make sure you aren’t missing out on this very valuable relief. R&D claims are made across all sectors – some recent examples of claims we have submitted for clients include;
- a company working in animal health (£26k repayment)
- an on-line retailer (£23k tax saved)
- a metal manufacturer (£12k saved)
Our Radius team comprises a vastly experienced team of R&D specialists, including an ex-HMRC R&D Inspector, and we have never had a claim turned down by HMRC. So, if your company is incurring costs in resolving technical challenges, no matter what field you are in, please get in touch and let us show you how easily your business could make its innovtion pay.
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