R&D Tax Credit Specialists
We work out which scheme applies to your accounting period, cost the claim, write the technical narrative, file the forms HMRC now requires, and stay with the claim if it is opened for a compliance check.
Tell us about your R&D
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Which Scheme Applies to Your Accounting Period
| Scheme | Accounting periods | Headline rate |
|---|---|---|
| Merged R&D expenditure credit | Beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Open to SMEs and large companies alike. | 20% credit |
| Enhanced R&D Intensive Support | Beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Loss-making SMEs whose relevant R&D is at least 30% of total expenditure. | 86% deduction, 14.5% credit |
| SME R&D tax relief | Beginning before 1 April 2024. Payable credit rises to 14.5% where the intensity condition is met. | 86% deduction, 10% credit |
| R&D expenditure credit | Beginning before 1 April 2024. The rate was 13% from 1 April 2020 and 12% from 1 January 2018. | 20% from 1 April 2023 |
Rates and commencement dates from HMRC guidance on the merged scheme and enhanced R&D intensive support and on working out your R&D tax relief.
R&D tax relief pays companies back for the work they did solving technical problems that had no off-the-shelf answer. The relief is generous and the rules around claiming it have tightened every year since 2023. Two new forms now sit in front of the claim, the schemes merged for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, and HMRC opens far more compliance checks than it used to.
That is the whole job: getting the scheme right for the period, costing it accurately, describing the technical advance in terms an HMRC inspector will accept, and being there if the claim is queried. We do that work under Tidy Money Ltd, an ACCA firm, and the fee is agreed in writing before anything starts.
What a Claim Involves
Every claim starts with the accounting period, because the period decides the scheme. Periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024 fall under the merged R&D expenditure credit, or under Enhanced R&D Intensive Support if the company is a loss-making SME spending at least 30% of its total expenditure on R&D. Earlier periods still run on the old SME scheme or on RDEC.
Then the costing. Staff time, externally provided workers, subcontractors, consumables, software, data and cloud computing all qualify on their own terms, and payments to unconnected subcontractors and externally provided workers are restricted to 65%. Getting the apportionment defensible matters more than getting it large, because an inflated qualifying expenditure figure is the first thing a compliance check goes after.
Last comes the paperwork HMRC now insists on. A claim notification form for first-time and lapsed claimants, filed within six months of the end of the period of account, and an additional information form that has to reach HMRC before the Company Tax Return. Miss either one and the claim is not valid, however good the underlying R&D was.
Where R&D Claims Come Apart
The technical narrative is where most claims are won or lost. HMRC is not asking whether the work was difficult or commercially clever. It is asking which scientific or technological uncertainty the company faced, why a competent professional in the field could not readily resolve it, and what advance the work sought. A narrative written in product language rather than that language gives an inspector nothing to agree with.
The other common failure is procedural and entirely avoidable. Companies claim on the return without notifying, or file the additional information form after the return rather than before it, and lose a valid claim on sequencing. We treat those deadlines as the first thing to check, not the last.
Compliance Checks and What Happens Next
HMRC checked 9,700 R&D claims in 2023 to 2024, covering 17% of them, and recovered £441 million. Estimated error and fraud fell to 7.8% across the reliefs and 14.6% for SMEs over the same year, down from 17.6% and 25.8% in 2021 to 2022. The position is improving, but the checking rate is what a company should plan around: a claim now has to be written to be read by a sceptical reader rather than filed and forgotten. The full picture is on our HMRC enquiry defence page.
If you already have a compliance check open, or a claim that has been reduced or rejected, that is work we take on directly, including claims another adviser prepared. If you have not claimed yet and want certainty first, advance assurance is open to smaller first-time claimants and covers up to three accounting periods.
What We Do Not Do
We do not take a claim we do not think will survive a compliance check. If the work does not meet the definition of R&D for tax purposes, we say so at the first conversation rather than after an engagement letter, and that costs you nothing.
We are not a contingent-fee claims factory and we do not cold-call companies with a percentage of a number we have not seen. Work is delivered by Tidy Money Ltd, regulated by the ACCA, and we do not advise on investments or on anything that requires FCA authorisation.
Guides
R&D tax credits
This guide covers the statutory test, the current schemes and rates, qualifying costs, and the forms and deadlines that decide whether a claim is valid.
The merged R&D scheme
This guide covers the 20% merged expenditure credit, which periods it applies to, how the credit is taxed, and the new contracted-out R&D rules.
Enhanced R&D Intensive Support
This guide covers who qualifies as R&D intensive, how the 30% condition is measured, the rates, and the grace period for a company that drops below the threshold.
The additional information form
This guide covers what the additional information form asks for, how many projects have to be described, and why the order of submission decides whether the claim survives.
The claim notification form
This guide covers who has to notify HMRC in advance, the six-month window, the three-year lookback exemption, and what the form asks for.
SME R&D tax relief
This guide covers the SME size thresholds, the 86% enhancement, the two payable credit rates, and which accounting periods are still on the old scheme.
RDEC
This guide covers how the expenditure credit differs from an enhanced deduction, the rate history, and which accounting periods still fall under RDEC.
The PAYE and NIC cap
This guide covers the £20,000 plus 300% formula, which claims the cap restricts, and why a company with a small payroll can hit it.
Externally provided workers
This guide covers the 65% restriction on unconnected providers, the different rule for connected parties, and why this category attracts attention on a compliance check.
Who can claim
This guide covers the company-level conditions: Corporation Tax, trade, going concern, and the subsidised and contracted-out disqualifications.
Qualifying expenditure
This guide covers the qualifying cost categories, the 65% external labour restriction, the exclusions, and how to apportion mixed costs.
Claim deadlines
This guide covers the 24 and 42 month claim deadlines, the earlier notification window, and what cannot be recovered once a date passes.
Advance assurance
This guide covers the two advance assurance routes, the thresholds for each, and what agreement does and does not protect.
Accounting treatment
This guide covers how a deduction differs from an expenditure credit in the accounts, and where the presentation question is actually settled.
What We Are Engaged To Do
R&D tax claims
This is the full claim: scheme, costing, technical narrative and both HMRC forms.
HMRC enquiry defence
This is answering an HMRC compliance check on an R&D claim, including claims someone else prepared.
Claim reviews and second opinions
This is an independent read of a claim, before filing or after HMRC has questioned it.
Advance assurance applications
This is applying for HMRC agreement on a first claim before it is made.
What Qualifies In Your Industry
Engineering
This page covers qualifying engineering activity, the competent professional test, and the costs that carry an engineering claim.
Software development
This page covers what uncertainty looks like in a codebase, why novelty is not enough, and cloud and data costs.
Construction
This page covers qualifying construction activity, design and buildability problems, and who claims on a contracted project.
Manufacturing
This page covers process R&D on the line, trial runs and scrap, and scale-up from lab to production.
Food and drink
This page covers reformulation and process work, why recipe development often fails the test, and shelf life claims.
Common questions
Which R&D scheme applies to my company?
The accounting period decides it, not the size of the company. Periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024 fall under the merged R&D expenditure credit at 20%, or under Enhanced R&D Intensive Support if the company is a loss-making SME whose relevant R&D expenditure is at least 30% of its total expenditure. Periods beginning before that date still run on the SME scheme or on RDEC.
How far back can we claim?
Where the period of account is 18 months or less, the deadline is 24 months from the last day of the period of account. Where it is longer than 18 months, it is 42 months from the first day of the period of account. For first-time and lapsed claimants there is an earlier hurdle: the claim notification form has to be filed within six months of the end of the period of account, and missing it makes the claim invalid regardless of the 24 month rule.
Do we need to file anything before the tax return?
Yes. The additional information form must reach HMRC before the Company Tax Return, or on the same day but sent first. Without it the claim will not be accepted. If this is a first claim, or the last claim was made more than three years before the end of the claim notification period, a claim notification form is needed as well.
Can you take over a claim another adviser prepared?
Yes, and that includes a claim already under a compliance check or one HMRC has reduced. We review what was filed, what the narrative actually said, and what the costing was built on, then tell you whether the position is defensible before agreeing to defend it.
What does it cost?
The fee is agreed in writing before any work begins, after we have seen the accounting period, the scale of the R&D and whether a compliance check is already open. Nothing is charged until you agree it.
Find out what the claim is worth before you commit
Tell us what your company builds, which accounting period you want to claim for, and whether you have claimed before. We come back with the scheme that applies to that period, a view on what qualifies, and the fee in writing.
Start a claim