Maximising your R&D Claim:
Don’t be put off if your business is loss making or the project you started was ultimately unsuccessful - your company could still benefit from the R&D scheme.
The R&D scheme is designed to reward companies that have invested time, money or resources and once it’s established that you have a qualifying project, it is important to make sure that all the costs are included.
Normally your biggest expense will be from the time you and your team have spent working on an R&D project. As well as a percentage of any salary costs you can include pension contributions and employers NIC in your claim but, unfortunately, dividends can't be included.
Any third party expenses relating to your project can be included, so if you have subcontracted any work (e.g. software development, analysis, testing etc.) you can claim 65% of these costs in your submission.
Expenditure on materials or consumables that are used up or transformed during the R&D process can be added, including any prototypes or samples AND you can also include any direct utility costs. Also, if you have purchased any items that directly relate to the R&D aspect of your project – including certain types of software – you can include these in your claim to maximise the benefit you will receive.
Once you have calculated all of these costs you can then apply an uplift of 30%, which the government allow as an additional incentive. This means that for every £100k of expenditure, you can add £30k to your total claim value!
EVERY business wants to get the most out of an R&D claim but it is important to remember that any cost you include needs to stand up to scrutiny in the event of an enquiry from HMRC.