Craig Simpson, Tax Partner at Bates Weston, looks at R & D tax credits as a way of improving your cashflow.

“At this challenging time for many businesses, focus will rightly be on ensuring cash is driven into the business as quickly as possible.

One area which should be considered is Research and Development Tax Credits. A claim can reduce your Corporation Tax liability and where a claim creates a tax loss, it can be surrendered for a repayable credit. More details on the relief can be found here.

Where companies have existing claims they may want to consider filing their accounts and tax returns earlier. For those companies who have not claimed before, the prospect of a claim going back two accounting periods may be attractive.

Many companies don’t realise they qualify for the relief and are therefore missing out of one of the most generous tax breaks given by the Government.  Just because a company is not developing a novel vaccine or involved in rocket science does not mean it is not carrying out R&D.  We have identified millions of pounds of qualifying expenditure on behalf of our clients involved in pretty much every sector.  If you are using any kind of technology to improve your products or the process by which your products are made then you may qualify. ”

Contact Craig Simpson or Richard Coombs for more information on how we can help.