This can be extremely costly if your business activities qualify for the generous R&D tax relief scheme, yet your Professional Advisers (Accountants/Business Coaches) are either, unaware of your exact activities and/or do not understand the R&D scheme well enough to maximise a legitimate claim.

Case Study 1)       Frustration Personified!

A recent case where we were introduced to a business too late. This resulted in £90,000 being written off in legitimate relief due to the company’s Accountant presuming the expenditure was for an “off the shelf” IT platform, rather than the actual “bespoke system”, designed from the ground up.

 Case Study 2)         A slightly better story to tell…

A more encouraging case we have been involved with is a Client that has recently claimed for the maximum period of two previous full trading years. The frustration is that this company has been conducting R&D qualifying activity for five years, and therefore could have claimed throughout this period had their professional Advisers understood the R&D scheme, and this Clients activity more than they actually did.

Fortunately, this Business Owner sat down with one of The Advice Room’s Associates, who in turn referred the case to us.

Six weeks later a healthy rebate was issued to the company for £48,700, however the total should have been approximately £120,000 over the previous 5 years qualifying activity.

The Trap:

Many business owners we meet have previously fallen into the trap of presuming their Accountant understands the scheme thoroughly. Phrases we hear regularly are:

“My Accountant takes care of that”

“My Accountant has arranged the claim for me”

Don’t allow professional snobbery or ignorance on the behalf of your professional Advisers to impact on your ability to maximise your claim within HMRC boundaries.

Accountant Practices tend to be procedural, but narrow in their scope and interpretation. However, it is refreshing to experience many Accountants looking to work with specialist companies in order to do their Clients justice.

Experience tells us that the HMRC welcome legitimate claims, providing the complexity of projects are delivered to them in a simple manner. Otherwise, Business Owners risk an enquiry in order to clarify any misunderstanding.

The Solution:

The R&D Claims Company Ltd will collaborate with your Accountant in order to enhance the overall experience. Doing so results in a legitimate claim being packaged sufficiently to meet HMRC expectations. This in turn results in the claim being dealt with efficiently, and in most cases without the need for HMRC to question its validity.

Whoever you are, check your understanding, or pay the price for not doing so!

Call us now, and add your company to the many we have successfully acted for.

The R&D Claims Company Ltd – 01925 859626