Is your business eligible for Research and Development Tax Relief?

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Just how innovative do you need to be to claim #RnD Tax Relief?

I thought I would write this blog after talking to a potential client that was referred to me. This client, unfortunately, wasn’t innovative in the right way to be able to claim Research and Development Tax Relief.

It was clear that they were an innovative business, they clearly had a great business idea and were exploiting a gap in the market. The first was a company that was helping Community Pharmacies to enter into new markets that might relieve the pressure on local NHS General Practice surgeries, such as taking and analysing blood samples.

They had developed fully tailored packages to help the pharmacy with Market Research to enable them to identify which additional services might work for them. They had also developed a fully functional program to support whichever aspect the community pharmacy had identified as a source of new business.

Someone had told them that the Pharmacies they work with would be able to claim R&D Tax Relief on the Market Research they were performing. This, unfortunately, is not the case as Market Research is strictly excluded from eligible activities.

The company was also keen to explore the potential for them to claim for the development of the programmes and their delivery. However, after a fairly detailed discussion, it was clear that although they were innovative in accessing new markets, they were not advancing Science or Technology in the work that they had done, nor were they overcoming any scientific or technological uncertainty. These are the basic fundamentals of the scheme.

In summary, just being innovative isn’t enough, the work that you are doing has to be either scientifically or technologically challenging. If you want to know whether you have cleared the hurdle talk to the experts at Cooden Tax Consulting.

Call Simon on 01424 225345 or leave a message through the contact us page on the website.