R&D Tax Reliefs for Businesses in London
Highly experienced, commercial accountancy expertise
Wilson Partners are an award-winning accountancy and tax advisory firm with an outstanding record for successful R&D tax credit claims. Located in the centre of Berkshire, they’re a top choice for London businesses to outsource their accounting services, or maximise their R&D tax credit returns.
As the capital city of England, and one of the most prosperous cities in the world, London is a central hub for businesses of all sizes and provides exceptional opportunities to research and innovate. However, the road to success isn’t always straight-forward. Even when businesses in London successfully innovate, they seldom reap the deserved financial returns for doing so. Consequently, this vicious cycle has caused research and development to slump.
In order to arrest this downturn, the UK Government is prioritising relief in the form of Research and Development (R&D) tax credits. Whatever size your company is, you are eligible for these grants. There are billions of unclaimed pounds worth of returns set aside for claims. All your company has to do is make an application for R&D tax credits.
R&D tax reliefs are so appealing because London businesses can use their claim in a range of different ways.They can either showcase a new product, service or process, upgrade an existing service, or enhance an existing internal or external system.
When you utilise R&D tax reliefs, everyone benefits. Your customers benefit from the enhancement, as they get a greater quality of service from your company, and you benefit from the lucrative financial rewards. Businesses spending money on creating or appreciably improving existing products, services or processes which incorporate or represent an increase in overall knowledge or capability in a field of science or technology could be eligible for a sizeable reduction in their Corporation Tax and / or a cash payment to reward their investment. Relief for SME’s is currently equivalent to between 21.5p and 18.6p for every £1 of qualifying expenditure depending on profitability.
There’s no reason for businesses in London to not be exploring R&D tax reliefs. But how can you ensure your claim is successful?
Video: What are R&D Tax Credits? Innovations Director, Emma Richards explains.
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See how much relief your London business could be eligible for with our R&D calculator
With our knowledge and expertise in this complex field, we’ve already recouped over £5 million for our clients to help them continue to foster a culture of innovation and development. Every single year, we help London businesses get the rewards they deserve and we are proud to do so.
£10,000? £50,000? Perhaps even over £400,000? It’s impossible to tell how much your London business could be losing out on when it comes to R&D tax credit. Consequently, there’s no reason that you should delay in contacting Wilson Partners. Our expert team can quickly help you investigate whether your London business is eligible for R&D tax relief and talk you through the steps of how to claim it.
Our R&D team is second-to-none and works closely with your technical team and financial team to establish what qualifying work can be used to support the claim and identify where you can claim financial reimbursement for the associated innovation costs.
Wilson Partners often use a no-win, no fee basis so London businesses can have peace of mind when investigating their R&D tax credit eligibility. You don’t lose out on anything by simply enquiring. R&D tax relief can be extremely lucrative for London businesses, so what are you waiting for?
There’s no time to delay. If you want to find out more about R&D Tax Reliefs for Businesses in London, contact Wilson Partners now. It’s time to get your reward for innovating.
Find out what you might be eligible for using our simple calculator below.
Please note our calculations are based on the rates for R&D activity taking place from 1st April 2023
Your company's financial position:
- Making a profit?
- Making a loss?
Annual R&D spend:
- £50,000
- £250,000
- £500,000
- £1,000,000
- £50,000
- £250,000
- £500,000
- £1,000,000
*To qualify as R&D Intensive more than 40% of business expenditure must be on R&D, changing to 30% from 1st April 2024.
R&D FAQs?
When putting together an R&D tax credit claim for a London business, we look for the following types of R&D expenditure to assess whether they qualify:
- Expenditure on staff including salaries, employer’s NIC and pension contributions.
- Expenditure on subcontractors and freelancers.
- Expenditure on materials and consumables including heat, light and power that are used up or transformed by the R&D process.
- Expenditure on some types of software.
R&D tax relief is an incentive that can be claimed by companies that undertake innovative projects in science or technology. Companies that can show they have undertaken projects seeking to achieve an advance in science or technology through the resolution of technical or scientific uncertainty are eligible to claim the relief.
If you have created or appreciably improved a product, process, or service because what existed was unable to provide the capability required, and another competent professional in your field would hold out what you have done as advancing knowledge and challenging to achieve there may be a degree of R&D in the project that you can claim R&D tax relief for.
R&D is not restricted to pure scientific research companies but extends to all sorts of sectors, some examples include; software development, construction, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, engineering and food companies.
Businesses have until two years after the end of an accounting period to file a claim i.e. for the accounting period ended 31 December 2021 the filing deadline for the R&D claim is 31 December 2023.
Businesses spending money on creating or appreciably improving existing products, services or processes which incorporate or represent an increase in overall knowledge or capability in a field of science or technology could be eligible for a sizeable reduction in their Corporation Tax and / or a cash payment to reward their investment. Relief for SME’s is currently equivalent to between 21.5p and 18.6p for every £1 of qualifying expenditure depending on profitability.
HMRC normally processes SME R&D claims within 28 days of receipt of the claim, however currently repayments are taking up to 40 days due to additional checks put in place by HMRC to prevent abuse of the system.
An SME is defined as a group/company with:
- Less than 500 employees, and
- Annual turnover under 100m Euros, or
- Balance Sheet total of not more than 86m Euros.
When calculating the above limits it is necessary to incorporate the data of any group, partner, or linked enterprises.
The following costs can be included in a claim:
- Staff Costs (salary, bonus, employers pension, and social security) to the extent they have directly or indirectly undertaken R&D activities.
- Externally Provided Workers – 65% of the payment to agencies/third party companies for providing resource engaged on the R&D
- Subcontractors – 65% of the payments made to companies or organisations working on the R&D project (SMEs only)
- Consumables– items that have been used up or transformed as part of the R&D work, such that they are no longer useable in their original form. This includes raw materials, software licenses, water, fuel, and power
- Clinical Trial Volunteers – Payments made to volunteers in clinical trials in return for participating in the trial.
- Contributions to independent research- Payments by large companies to organisations carrying out eligible R&D, provided they are carrying out research relevant to your field/industry. They must also be a ‘qualifying body’, individual, or partnership each member of which is an individual. A ‘qualifying body’ is a charity, institution of higher education, scientific research organisation, or a health service body
Yes, an R&D claim should still be possible if you are in receipt of a grant. However if your grant is classified as ‘state aid’ and was given for the same purpose of your R&D project it is likely the project will not be eligible for the SME scheme and a claim under the RDEC scheme should be made instead.
Most R&D claims can be prepared in 4 weeks from receipt of the initial information, however this is largely dependent on a quick turnaround for any additional financial data or technical information requested, including availability for calls to discuss the projects. If shorter turn around times are needed we will always do our best to accommodate.
No you don’t need timesheets to be able to make an R&D claim. Timesheets can make it easier to identify the time spent on R&D but you do not need these to be able to claim, HMRC accept that not all businesses have this data and it is possible to submit a claim based on an estimate of the time spent on R&D.
Currently there is no legislative requirement to submit any documentation but it is best practice to prepare a report that includes a sample of technical narratives to evidence the R&D, the approach to identifying the R&D, and details of the calculation. For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023 companies will be required to provide additional information in relation to R&D claims. Whilst we await further details from HMRC of the specific requirements it is expected claimants will need to provide a breakdown of costs between qualifying categories and a brief description of the R&D.
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Other services for SMEs that Wilson Partners offer includes:
Our team has years of experience in providing outsourced accounting services to clients, ranging from UK subsidiaries of overseas parent companies (including listed and private equity funded businesses) to UK owner managed businesses, all of whom receive a professional, tailored service to meet their needs. An outsourced accounting solution allows clients to focus on their core business, manage their business with the confidence that comes from regular and robust financial reporting as well as reduced costs compared with undertaking these functions in house.
For more detailed information and a meeting to discuss your accounting and finance requirements, please call us on: 01628 770 770 or email:[email protected]
Call us on 01628 770 770 for a no-obligation chat
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For more detailed information and a meeting to discuss your accounting and finance requirements, please call us on: 01628 770 770 or email: [email protected]