From 8 August all R&D claims will require significant additional information which must be submitted before filing the company tax return. Failure to submit the additional information will result in the R&D claim being removed from the tax return.
The additional information form is currently available to be submitted for companies who wish to give HMRC more information on their projects and costs being claimed but from 8 August 2023 this will be mandatory.
The form can be completed by the company itself via its Government Gateway account or an agent acting on behalf of the company.
What details are included in the additional information form?
Company details
- Unique taxpayer reference (UTR)
- Employer PAYE reference number
- VAT registration number
- Business types- Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code
Contact Details
- The main senior internal R&D contact in the company who is responsible for the R&D claim, for example a company director
- Any agent involved in the R&D claim
Accounting period start and end date
- The accounting period start and end date for which you’re claiming the tax relief, this must match the one shown in the Company Tax Return.
Qualifying expenditure details
This may include but is not limited to:
- Staff costs
- Consumables, such as materials or utilities
- Software
- Subcontractor costs
- Externally provided workers
- Payments to participants of a clinical trial
- Contributions to independent R&D costs (RDEC only)
- Cloud computing costs, including storage (accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023 only)
- Data licence costs (accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023 only)
Qualifying indirect activities
The amount of qualifying expenditure for each project of qualifying indirect activities, that do not directly lead to resolving the uncertainty.
This may include:
- Creating information services for R&D support such as preparing a report of R&D findings
- Direct supporting activities such as maintenance, security, administration and clerical activities and finance and personnel activities, for the share that relates to R&D
- Ancillary activities needed to begin R&D, for example taking on and paying staff, leasing laboratories and maintaining R&D equipment, including computers used for R&D purposes
- Training required to directly support the R&D project
- Research by students and researchers carried out at universities
- Research including data collection to make new scientific or technological testing, surveys or sampling methods, where this research is not R&D in its own right
- Feasibility studies to inform the strategic direction of a specific R&D activity
Project details
The company must include the number of projects included in the R&D claims and their key details.
The company must confirm which tax relief (SME or RDEC, or both) the company is claiming and answer the following six questions for each project.
- What is the main field of science or technology?
- What was the baseline level of science or technology that the company planned to advance?
- What advance in that scientific or technological knowledge did the company aim to achieve?
- The scientific or technological uncertainties that the company faced?
- How did your project seek to overcome these uncertainties?
- Which tax relief you are claiming and the amount of qualifying expenditure for the project?
You will not be able to access the form once it’s been submitted, so it’s important that a copy is saved before it is submitted.
Cowgills are experts in R&D claims, with over 15 years’ experience in reviewing, managing, and submitting successful claims for all sizes of organisations. If you have any questions on the above or making a claim, get in touch get in touch.
Disclaimer
The information was correct at time of publishing but may now be out of date.
