Every year around this time HM Revenue and Customs release statistics on how the R&D Tax Relief Schemes are performing by looking at the number of claims, the number of claimant companies and the total cost of the three schemes.

The latest statistics cover the 2013/14 tax year and are based on claims received by 31 March 2015 and processed by 30 June 2015, which means that whilst it won’t be 100% accurate (as you can submit a claim up to the first anniversary of the submission deadline for the original tax return) it will capture a majority of claims. For those of you with a really keen interest you can access the whole package here or at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/research-and-development-tax-credits-statistics-august-2013 ignore the fact that it says 2013, HMRC have just overwritten the original page, most helpful if you wanted to look at the previous years’ reports.

As always they make for interesting reading. The overall cost to HM Treasury for 2013/14 tax year was £1.75bn, an increase of £380m on the 2012/13 cost. The amount claimed by SMEs increased by £200m to £800m and the amount claimed under either the old large company scheme or the new RDEC scheme increased by £180m to £950m.

Since its inception in the 2000/01 tax year, there have now been over 120,000 claims which in total have generated £11.4bn of tax relief. More than 33,800 different companies have claimed under the SME scheme and over 7,500 different companies have claimed under the Large Company or RDEC scheme.

In the 2013/14 tax year the number of claims rose by over 20% to 20,100 although this figure does include companies claiming both SME and Large Company claims on the same return (where an SME might have performed subcontracted R&D or been in receipt of a grant for their R&D), the increase was primarily driven by additional uptake and awareness in SME companies, which saw the number of claims rise by just over 3,000 to 16,140 (an increase of 23%).

There are also a number of regional variations, London, the South East and the East of England are the main centres for the highest number of claims, which demonstrates the huge amount of work that will be required to increase the performance of the “Northern Powerhouse” that will be at the centre of the advancement of our “Innovation Nation”

Perhaps the greatest highlight is that the average value of a claim by an SME company continues to rise in 2013/14 the figure stood at £49,505.

Imagine what this could do for an SME who has an eligible claim who hasn’t yet made a claim!

If you are an SME who has done something interesting with Science or technology and you think you might have a claim or if you are an accountant, professional advisor or business coach who might have a client who might have a claim contact us here.

Simon Bulteel is a director of Cooden Tax Consulting, a division of Cooden Consulting Limited. He has been preparing Research and Development Tax Relief claims for over 10 years, throughout his time in an Accountancy Practice, in the Clinical Research Industry, in the Motorsport Industry and more recently in his role as Lead Consultant at Cooden Tax Consulting. Alongside his own clients, he works with other R&D Tax Relief consulting firms to train new members of staff, offer technical and tax support and improve their claims. He works with a number of Accountants across the South East to support their clients, whether that be through a white label service or by direct referrals. He also has an international network of advisors to support his clients with claims across, France, Spain and the Netherlands.

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