Detail.
Focus.
Clarity.
What can I claim?
Navigating a claim can be tricky and you need to read the small print. The highlights are below, but please call if you want more clarity on the detail.
Eligible projects
Eligible activity can be found in almost every industry, from construction to software engineering and pharmaceuticals, and all points in between. The BEIS Guidelines set out the criteria for eligibility, laying out two key requirements:
Advance – activities must seek to achieve an appreciable advance or improvement in science or technology
Uncertainty – in pursuing the advance there must be the resolution of technological or scientific uncertainty.
Sounds complicated, right? Yes, but if you are undertaking eligible work, you ought to be claiming. It will help you innovate and grow.
If you are keen to read the detail, here is a link to the BEIS Guidelines:
Qualifying expenditure
Not all categories of expenditure incurred on eligible projects or activities are qualifying under the legislation, so it is necessary to also understand which do, and which don’t:
The categories are well-defined:
- Staffing costs
- Payments for externally provided workers
- Payments for contracted out R&D (sometimes)
- Expenditure on consumable or transformable items (including water, fuel and power)
- Expenditure on computer software
- Expenditure on data licences *
- Expenditure on cloud computing services *
- Contributions to independent research (sometimes)
- Payments to subjects of clinical trials
* for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023 only
As you can see, at this level it’s not rocket-science, but it does require attention to detail and understanding of some intricate rules. There are also differences between the two regimes so care and expert knowledge is needed.
