R&D Tax-Back.

When was the last time someone offered you free money?

Although it may sound like a gimmick, it’s actually 100% legitimate.

The UK government’s Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credits are without doubt one of the most generous incentives available to British businesses. And surprisingly few companies are aware of their existence!

The qualifying criteria for claiming R&D tax back is huge and includes but not limited to: internal improvements, CRM systems, third party invoicing, consumables, wages, pensions, national insurance contributions, tendering and more. Every single company in the UK can potentially qualify. It’s simply a question of identifying the right type of company expenses.

We’ve studied the legislation to ensure that we can maximise your claim and stay safely within the permitted parameters of the Scheme.

We can help you easily identify the rewards which your company is eligible to receive (either cash paid back into your account, or credit against your next tax bill) which you can claim.

And, best of all, it doesn’t cost you a penny!

We don’t take any fees from you for making your R&D Tax Credit claim. We simply take a percentage of the amount of money (or tax credit) you get back from HMRC.

If we don’t succeed in getting your R&D Tax Credit (we haven’t had a failure yet), but if we did, you wouldn’t be charged a penny. So, truly, you have nothing to lose!

What is a Tax Credit?

If your company pays Corporation Tax, a ‘tax credit’ means you pay less tax. Or, if you have already paid out the Corporation Tax (and, in the case of R&D Tax Credits we can even claim backwards for two previous years) you get that money paid back to you straight into your account!

How much can I claim?

The amount you can reclaim from HMRC is calculated at 130% of all your qualifying development costs (‘Qualifying Costs’). This results in a return of 24.7% of your Qualifying Costs for profitable companies, or 33.35% for loss making companies.

What types of ‘R&D Projects’ can I claim for?

The HMRC’s definition of R&D is very wide. It can include creating new processes, products or services, making appreciable improvements to existing ones and even using science and technology to duplicate existing processes, products and services in a new way (although pure product development by itself does not qualify).

Some examples of qualifying activities include software development (in any company, not just software development companies), engineering design, new construction techniques and, of course, more high-tech projects in industries such as bio-energy, life and health sciences.

We have found that most companies, in most industries, carry out activities which can legitimately fall within the scope of eligible R&D Projects.

Why use Ray Levy Tax Back Services to make the claim?

Making an effective Tax Back claim is more than simply an accounting exercise. It’s crucial to understand what the legislation allows, to ensure your claim will be successful and that maximise the opportunity to claim what’s available to you.

Whilst we know that your accountant may offer to do this work, we’ve found that accountants will often prefer to play it safe and make a reduced claim as they may be unsure of how the legislation will be applied. Additionally, if HMRC come back with any queries or challenges to your accountant’s submissions, your accountant may not be best placed to argue these regulatory points with HMRC.

Additionally, unlike many accountants who will try to prepare these claims by themselves, we employ specialist industry experts who speak your language, and who are able to drill down into your business model to identify and unlock otherwise hidden R&D qualified expenditure within your core business functions.

So, overall, we believe that we offer our clients a much-enhanced service, which maximises your claim and provides a solid legal back up to deal effectively with any queries raised by HMRC.

How easy is it to make a claim?

We have streamlined the claims process to make it really easy for you to make a claim. Most claims will take HMRC around 4-6 week to process. Allowing a further 20 days for HMRC to get the money into your account, means the entire process can be completed within 6 – 8 weeks (start to finish).

This is all you need to do:

  1. Initial ‘Go/No Go’ Check

The first thing we’ll do is send you a short introductory questionnaire to help us identify whether you’re likely to be able to claim your free money through the R&D Tax Credit.

You can also just speak direct with one of our R&D Tax Credit advisors to answer any questions and we can also give you an initial indication of whether your claim will succeed.

  1. R&D Questionnaire

If you pass the initial hurdle (and most companies do!), we’ll send you a more detailed questionnaire which will help us identify all the possible areas of what HMRC will consider as ‘R&D’ (it’s a lot wider than you think!) and the maximum amount we think you will be able to claim.

You will be able to call us at any time to ask for help with completing the R&D Questionnaire or to answer any questions you have on the process.

  1. Your Personal Claims Adviser

Once we receive your completed R&D Questionnaire, you will be assigned your own personal claims adviser who will review your responses and contact you to discuss any areas which aren’t clear or if there are areas where we may need some more information to prepare the claim and maximize your recovery.

  1. Preparing the Draft Report

We will prepare a draft R&D Claims Report based on the information you have supplied in the R&D Questionnaire and any follow up information obtained by our claims adviser.

We will send you the Draft Report and you will be able to make any changes you want to it, and of course to discuss it with your claims adviser.

  1. Finalisation

Once we have agreed it with you, we will send you the final R&D Claims Report for your review and approval.

  1. Submission to HMRC

We will submit the agreed R&D Claims Report, together with the appropriate tax calculations and submit your Tax Form to HMRC.

  1. Your free money or tax credit

HMRC says that it aims to process these claims within 4 to 6 weeks. Unless you happen to file at a busy time of year (such as December and March which are the most common financial year ends), we have found that most claims are processed within this period. So, unless there are any inquiries raised, HMRC should realise and process your payment within a few weeks.

  1. Future claims

The good news is that R&D credits are not a ‘one-off’ claim. You can claim for each financial year which you have any R&D expenses. So, we’ll make a note to liaise with you directly when your next claim falls due. We can also help you streamline future claims through helping you identify potential R&D expenses and help you maintain records of costs incurred.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Under the SME Scheme, you can claim back up to 33% of your development costs for a loss making company, or 24.7% for a company making profits.

A second scheme (the RDEC Scheme) is available to larger companies with a turnover of £100m and more than 500 employees. Under that scheme the payout is less than the SME Scheme however, being around 13% of costs.

Absolutely not. Any businesses in any industry can claim their R&D Tax Credit, not just those in cutting-edge fields like pharmaceuticals and nanotechnology. Last year, for example, companies in construction, manufacturing, transport, fashion and numerous other industries all made successful claims.

In 2020, the scheme gave out more than £7.4 billion to nearly 86,000 companies. That’s an average payout of £86,000 per business!

Yes, successful development is not a criteria. The fact that you spent money on trying to develop a solution to solve a problem is all that is required. Failure also counts in full here!

Not only the direct costs involved in undertaking your development project, but your indirect costs are also eligible, including, staff costs, software costs, information services, supporting activities like maintenance and administration, ancillary activities such as contracting with third party developers, training costs, research costs, the costs of feasibility studies.

Yes, companies who are not paying any corporation tax can still claim the full amount of their R&D Tax Credit. In this case, HMRC offers you a choice. You can either ‘surrender your loss’ – which means you can receive 14.5% cash back from HMRC immediately, or you can choose to carry the full 33.3% forward to set off against your future corporate tax bills.

What do I do next?

Simply get in touch with us (details below) and we’ll help you from start to finish, at entirely no cost to you, to secure your R&D Tax claim in the shortest possible time.

Sectors we work with

We provide services for a number of different sectors including start-ups, property developments, small businesses and more.

Start-ups

We help you from day one, and stay with you all the way. From incorporating your company, to advising you on the terms of your articles of association and shareholders agreement.

Small Businesses

We help small businesses in all different types of industries. From early stage, high growth, online businesses to long-established bricks and mortar companies.

Media Clients

Our media clients love the fact that we’re experienced in the world of media and understand their industry and their way of doing things.

Online and Ecommerce

We work with hundreds of online and ecommerce clients. Creating solutions to help make the world an easier, more connected and more enjoyable place to live.

Fintech

We’re proud to work with a number of leading online banking and payment processors, bitcoin and crypto-currency trading solutions and peer-to-peer lending platforms.

Property Development

We can advise you quickly and easily on the options available to you and guide you through market practice and investor expectations.

Get in touch today

We’re always happy to discuss any new ideas or legal questions you may have. So, feel free to get in touch with us today. Just complete the form below and hit ‘Submit’ or click on the ‘Request Callback’ button and we’ll be delighted to speak with you.

020 3695 8920
ray@raylevylaw.com