Tax Chat - R&D tax relief gets even better!!

Research and Development (‘R&D’) tax relief is one of the best ways of reducing your company’s tax bill and it has just become even more attractive!  With the new increase in tax relief from 200% to 225% this could allow companies to achieve a tax deduction of £225 for every £100 spent.

Furthermore, small companies have often not been able to take advantage of the relief as their R&D expenditure has not reached the £10,000 de minimus level required.  However, this limit is now to be removed so that all qualifying expenditure (from accounting periods ended 1 April 2012 onwards) can be included in an R&D claim.

Remember, under the R&D rules not only can relief be given to profitable companies but a tax credit can be claimed back from HMRC in respect of loss making companies.  Up until now this credit has been limited to the company’s PAYE and NIC liabilities however this restriction has also been removed for accounting periods ending on or after 1 April 2012.

We believe these revised rules will open the possibility of making successful R&D claims to a much wider range of companies - claims have the potential now to be increased and to be available where they were not before.  

And the improvements to the R&D relief rules should not end here - the Government is consulting further on tax credits to make these more favourable.  Therefore, whilst the Government is getting a lot of stick in the press for its failings in this year’s Budget, here is one opportunity where making some real tax savings is possible.

So if you believe that your company carries out any R&D activities please get in contact with us now so we can discuss making an R&D claim.  For further information or to discuss, please contact Lesley Sutton on 01484 550037 or on taxchat@revellward.co.uk

Blog details

The potential tax relief available in respect of Research and Development (‘R&D’) work has always been generous.  However, amendments to the rules will now allow for even greater tax savings and make the relief accessible to more small companies:

For expenditure from 1 April 2012:
• Rate of R&D tax relief for small and medium companies (‘SMEs’) increases from 200% to 225%.

For accounting periods ending on or after
1 April 2012:
• The £10,000 de minimis of qualifying expenditure, required before relief is available, is removed.
• The limit on the credit available to SMEs based on PAYE and NIC liabilities will be removed.

So if you conduct any R&D activities contact us now to see if you could be saving tax!

For further information or to discuss, please contact Lesley Sutton on 01484 550037 or taxchat@revellward.co.uk