HMRC’s new rules for making R&D tax claims
Rightly or wrongly, HMRC have perceived that R&D tax claims made by companies is an area potentially open to abuse. As a result, HMRC's new rules for making R&D tax claims have been introduced from 1 April 2023. This post discusses the changes and the new forms that require completion after 1 April 2023.
There is now a further two tier process for making an R&D tax claim which has been introduced by HMRC. Firstly completing and submitting the claim notification form, and secondly completion of the additional information form.
Who is required to notify HMRC?
HMRC's new rules for making R&D tax claims potentially affect companies with accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023 where the following applies:
Claim notification forms
The forms can be submitted either by a company representative (e.g. director) or an adviser who has been appointed by the company.
In order to complete the claim notification form you will need the following details:
Once you've completed the form it can be submitted via your Government Gateway account (using your email and password) or via email.
What is the deadline for submitting a claim notification form?
The latest date that companies must submit the claim notification form is 6 months after the end of the period of account that the claim relates to. If companies fail to submit the form by this deadline, their claim will not be valid.
An example
Steve is a director of Perry Ltd and the company's year end is 31 May 2024. The company must submit a claim notification form to HMRC by 30 November 2024.
Additional information form
The second level of compliance introduced as part of HMRC's new rules for making R&D tax claims is the additional information form. With effect from 1 August 2023, you must complete and submit an additional information form to HMRC in support of all your claims for Research and Development (R&D) tax relief or expenditure credit.
A key point to mention is that you will need to submit an additional information form before you submit your company’s Corporation Tax Return. Failure to do so will potentially result in any R&D claim being removed from your corporation tax return by HMRC.
You can submit the additional information form before 1 August 2023 if you want to give HMRC more information.
As with the claim notification form, the additional information form can be submitted either by a company representative (e.g. director) or an adviser who has been appointed by the company. You'll also need to provide the following details on the form:
HMRC have set out in their guidance, the level of detail they require when describing each of the relevant R&D projects.
The additional information form can also be submitted via your Government Gateway account (using your email and password) or via email.
It's important to make sure all the information is accurate and complete to avoid any delays or issues with your claim. We would also suggest that ideally you want to be working with a highly IT literate accountancy firm who have very effective systems and procedures. This will hopefully ensure that any R&D tax claim is processed expediently by HMRC.
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