Effective August 2023, any company filing an R&D Tax Credit claim on their CT600 must first file Additional Information through the government portal.

The Additional Information being sought includes a description of how each R&D project meets the eligibility criteria.

Here are some do’s and don’ts for your R&D Tax Credit Submission

• Ensure you identify the competent professional within the company that directs the R&D project. HMRC is looking for someone who has the academic and practical experience to carry out the R&D project. If a non-technical person is selected as a competent professional, you will raise concerns on a compliance check by HMRC.
• Don’t include non-eligible activities. A common mistake for a company is to say part of their R&D project included researching how to use a technology. This falls under training and is ineligible.
• Don’t include R&D projects that are in ineligible fields of science. For example, developing an algorithm to monitor human behaviour is social science and therefore ineligible.
• Ensure you identify the technological uncertainty in an R&D project. This is the most important criterion. You need to define the technical hurdles and obstacles at the commencement of the R&D project. Make sure the uncertainties are technical, saying you don’t know if you can develop a product so that it can be manufactured at a particular cost is not a technological uncertainty.

But many companies struggle with preparing this Additional Information. This is where RDP excels. We have the technical staff (computer specialists, engineers, PhDs, etc.) that have prepared over 10,000 R&D tax credit claims in all fields of technology and science.

How can RDP Help on preparing an R&D Tax Credit submission

RDP has developed and continues to develop our Innovation Connection Programme (“ICP”). Essentially the objective of this “system” is to identify and capture all R&D work in real-time. It should only take one person 15 minutes once a month to update this system. RDP will also check regularly to ensure the system is being kept up appropriately.

The benefits of RDP’s “ICP” are that:

• All R&D is captured as it happens so nothing is missed or forgotten, and the R&D claim is maximised.
• The R&D claim is ready at year-end and can be filed immediately.
• The system provides full support when HMRC asks for contemporaneous documentation.
• It is easy to use as RDP customized it to the client’s needs.

So, contact our team at RDP today if you have any questions on preparing an R&D Tax Credit submission at 0208 214 1341 or email Jenni at [email protected].