JJMK Consultants
Advantages of R&D
With the removal of lockdown restrictions on the horizon there’s no better time to review what your business is aiming to achieve in the future and how it is going to maintain (or obtain) a competitive advantage in your chosen market place.

With the removal of lockdown restrictions on the horizon there’s no better time to review what your business is aiming to achieve in the future and how it is going to maintain (or obtain) a competitive advantage in your chosen market place.

Innovation will be at the heart of many of the strategies companies look to implement to achieve a competitive advantage. Therefore why not make R&D tax relief a key part of your plans by committing time to think about whether your business could benefit financially from this Government backed relief.

To assist with your thought process, noted below are some triggers that may indicate your company is carrying out (or will start to carry out) activities that enable it to claim R&D tax relief.

Indicators that your company might be able to claim R&D tax relief

  • You or another member of your team e.g. your technical lead, R&D manager, head engineer (or equivalent) are ‘scratching your heads’ and struggling to find a solution to a particular issue. You may even be worrying about this and losing sleep over how to proceed.
  • You are regularly finding that you are having to be more creative to ensure that you are keeping ahead of the competition.
  • There’s been a change in your industry. For instance, additional regulation, key materials or components become unavailable, scarce or too expensive.
  • Part of your business strategy includes finding new ways to do things to make them more environmentally friendly.
  • There’s been a significant change to the business (i.e. ownership) which has led to an internal restructure of certain services which could include the technical/creative functions. This might be domestically, internationally or both.
  • You are spending money on, are in the process of developing, or starting to develop, your own software solutions, manufacturing processes, scientific trials, new products etc.
  • You have a ‘new product/R&D’ budget in your financial forecasts.
  • You employ staff, or take on agency staff, for their expertise in areas such as engineering, science, software development.
  • Your business has applied for, or owns, patents.
  • You subcontract out particular elements of projects to third parties (or related parties).
  • You have developed a solution that increases efficiency.

The above is not an exhaustive list but should help you to start thinking about whether your business has the potential to claim R&D tax relief. Therefore, please do make R&D tax relief one of the ways your business can claim a key advantage as the economy starts to recover.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your business and can help you assess the potential benefits which might be available to you under the R&D Tax Credit regime. Please do not hesitate to contact us at info@jjmkconsultants.co.uk