Why are R&D claim consultations important?
In the current era of R&D Tax Relief, with greater demands for compliance and hyper-vigilant HMRC inspectors, it’s more important than ever for R&D Tax Advisors to confirm a claimant’s eligibility for the scheme before going ahead with their R&D claim.
Sound like an obvious step in the process?
You may be surprised at how many R&D Tax Credit providers fail to conduct proper eligibility screening prior to signing clients on for R&D claims. Their approach is to capture business first and look for qualifying R&D expenditure later.
The repercussion of this is that it can lead to embellished, inflated, and sometimes inaccurate R&D claim reports. And with such increased compliance efforts, it’s virtually a guarantee that any discrepancies in an R&D claim will trigger an HMRC enquiry.
An enquiry can not only delay R&D claim payment by months on end, but if not properly defended, can result in your R&D claim being thrown out completely. Worst case scenario – your business could be hit with financial or legal penalties.
This is why an R&D claim consultation is of vital importance, and a non-negotiable for legitimate R&D Tax Specialists (such as Claim Capital!).
What does an R&D claim consultation involve?
An R&D claim consultation is often shaped around whether your business has claimed R&D Tax Credits before. If R&D Tax Relief is new to you, we’ll start by giving you an overview of how it works to incentivise innovation in the UK.
Now, it’s time to learn about you! We’ll ask you to give a summary of the R&D you’ve conducted over the past two financial years. We’ll then provide you with HMRC’s eligibility criteria for R&D Tax Credits, to see if your business fits the bill.
This involves answering several questions, such as:
Did your project seek to make an advancement in science or technology?
Were there any technical uncertainties that you R&D project had to overcome?
Were there competent professionals involved in your project? (AKA – specially trained experts within a particular field, such as Senior Software Developer).
Is your advancement readily available in the public domain, or is it new?
At this point, our experts will have a clear idea of whether you qualify for R&D Tax Relief.
Up next, the R&D claim process and what it entails. In your R&D claim consultation, we’ll summarise how we complete both aspects of the R&D Tax Credit - the financial and technical reports.
If you have a rough idea of how much you’ve spent on qualifying R&D activities, we can provide a rough claim size estimate for you. This provides context and puts into perspective how cost-effective our Fixed Fee is compared to percentage-based advisors.
Once you’re caught up on the overarching R&D claim process, we map out a timeline based on information we need from your company, and what to expect from us should you proceed. We’re proud to provide a market-leading R&D Tax Credit service that turns around R&D claims within just 3-5 days.
To finish things off, we’ll let you know of the next steps and get you booked in for a kick-off call with your Account Manager and R&D Tax Credit Specialist.
Do I need to prepare anything for my R&D claim consultation?
You won’t need to present any concrete expenditure figures in your R&D claim consultation, but a rough estimate will help us provide a picture of the potential size of your R&D claim.
What you will need to know is whether you’ve incurred costs on qualifying R&D activities, which are:
Payment to the subjects of clinical trials (if applicable)
(To learn more about what’s included in each of these areas of R&D expenditure, click on each bullet point to read our specialised blogs.)
Certain caveats exist within each category of qualifying R&D expenditure, which will be clarified in your R&D claim consultation. Such as - were your R&D-related expenses originally paid by the employee and then reimbursed on the company card? Conditions like this are very important when assessing the scope of your R&D Tax Credit claim.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a granular breakdown of your R&D activity. The purpose of the R&D claim consultation is not to give you a specific figure of how much R&D Tax Relief you’re entitled to (this requires complex financial and technical analysis), it’s to simply confirm that your business has a strong basis for making an R&D Tax Credit claim.
How long does an R&D claim consultation take?
R&D claim consultations with a member of our team take no longer than 30 minutes.
We recognise that any project involving research and development is time-consuming, so we keep these meetings concise, allowing you to get back to your innovation!
Are businesses obliged to proceed following an R&D claim consultation?
No!
We can’t speak for all R&D Tax Credit providers, but when you book in an R&D claim consultation with Claim Capital, there is absolutely no obligation to proceed with our R&D Tax Credit service.
After all, the entire point of the R&D claim consultation is to see whether:
Your business qualifies for R&D Tax Relief
Our R&D Tax Credit service appeals to you!
Only confirmation of both these factors allow you to make an informed decision for your business regarding our end-to-end R&D Tax Credit service.
The R&D Tax Relief scheme is one of the most generous tax incentives available to UK businesses, with a year-on-year increase in uptake. Most businesses that learn about their potential to claim R&D Tax Credits choose to continue with the R&D claim, but it’s never an obligation.
If an R&D Tax Credit provider suggests that an R&D claim consultation comes at a price, or with a commitment to their service – this should trigger alarm bells!
How do I book in an R&D claim consultation?
Simple!
You can either:
Submit your details through our contact page to arrange an R&D claim consultation over the phone. One of our R&D Tax Specialists will swiftly reach out to schedule a meeting.
Book an R&D claim consultation directly at a time that suits you.