Maximise Your Innovation with R&D Tax Credits Claim
Reclaim Up to 27% of R&D Costs: Eligible companies can recover a significant portion of their R&D spending.
Boost Cash Flow: Receive cash back or reduce your corporation tax bill, improving your business’s financial flexibility.
No R&D Too Small: Whether it's refining an existing product or developing a breakthrough technology, qualifying R&D activities come in all sizes.
What is Research and development (R&D) tax credits?
R&D Tax Credits are a valuable government incentive that rewards UK businesses for investing in innovation. Whether you’re developing new products, services, or processes, you may be eligible to reclaim a portion of your R&D expenditure. At Upstack, we make claiming R&D tax credits simple and efficient, so you can focus on growing your business while we handle the complexities of the claim process.
What are the Eligibility for R&D Claim?
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What Qualifies for R&D Tax Relief?
Technological or Scientific Advancements: Your project must aim to make advancements in science or technology, such as developing new products, processes, or services, or improving existing ones.
Overcoming Uncertainty: The work must involve resolving technological or scientific uncertainties, where it’s not readily known how to achieve the desired outcome.
Innovation Across Any Industry: Eligible R&D activities can be found in any sector, including software development, engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, and more.
Eligible R&D Costs: You can claim relief on direct and indirect costs such as staff salaries, subcontractor costs, materials, utilities, and software.
Failed Projects Still Qualify: Even if the project wasn’t successful, you can still claim tax relief if the work attempted to make technological or scientific advancements.
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What Costs Can I Claim Under R&D Tax Credits?
Staff Costs: Salaries, NICs, pensions, and proportionate costs of directly engaged staff.
Materials: Consumables and raw materials directly used in R&D.
Software/Cloud: Software licenses, data licenses, and cloud services directly used in R&D (expanded under the new scheme).
Subcontractors: Subcontractor costs relevant to R&D, with a focus on UK-based work.
Utilities: Proportional energy and water costs.
Prototypes: Development and testing of prototypes, excluding commercial products.
Indirect Costs: Indirect costs like rent and utilities for R&D facilities.
What qualifies for R&D tax relief
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Eligibility
Old Scheme: Applies to SME and large companies separately.
New Merged Scheme: Unified criteria for SMEs and large companies.
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Qualifying Activities
Old Scheme: Developing or improving technology or products and addressing technical uncertainties.
New Merged Scheme: Same criteria, but now explicitly encourages data and cloud projects.
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Qualifying Costs
Old Scheme: Staffing (salaries, pensions, NICs), materials, consumables, software and subcontractor costs (limits applied differently for SMEs and RDEC).
New Merged Scheme: Staffing costs remain and expanded to Cloud computing and data licenses explicitly qualify.
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Excluded Activities
Old Scheme: Routine improvements, commercial activities and cosmetic changes.
New Merged Scheme: Same exclusions.
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Focus on R&D Location
Old Scheme: No specific restrictions
New Merged Scheme: New focus on UK-based R&D activities, with potential exemptions for certain overseas work.
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Intellectual Property (IP)
Old Scheme: Owning IP was not a strict requirement.
New Merged Scheme: Increased emphasis on UK retention of IP.
How Much R&D Tax Credits Can You Claim?
The table below outlines the changes in R&D tax relief rates over recent years and provides the applicable rates for the new merged scheme, effective for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024.
| Before 1 April 2023 | After 1 April 2023 | Before 1 April 2023 (RDEC) | From 1 April 2023 (RDEC) | From 1 April 2024 (Merged Scheme) | Enhanced R&D Intensive Support (From 1 April 2024) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss-Making SME | Up to 33.35% | Up to 18.6% | 10.5% | 15% | 16.2% | |
| Profit-Making SME | Up to 24.7% | Up to 21.5% | 10.5% | Up to 16.2% | Up to 16.2% | |
| R&D Intensive SME | Up to 27% | Up to 27% | ||||
| Large Company | 10.5% | Up to 16.2% | Up to 16.2% |
Our 3-Step R&D Claim Process at Upstack
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1. Complete Your R&D Review:
We will carefully document your claim, gathering all necessary evidence for HMRC. We'll explain how your R&D activities and costs have been evaluated, and how your total tax credit benefit has been calculated. This ensures your claim is comprehensive and well-supported, giving you confidence in its robustness.
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2. Submit the Claim to HMRC:
We will provide you with detailed reports for review and walk you through our findings. Once approved, we’ll submit your R&D tax credit claim through your Corporation Tax return (CT600), or collaborate with your accountant to ensure it's filed correctly.
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3. Receive Your R&D Tax Credit:
Once approved, you will be rewarded for your investment in innovation and your Corporation Tax bill will be reduced or your cash benefit is paid into your bank account, boosting your business’s cash flow.
You invested in R&D. Let’s claim your money back.
Personalised Human Support: Our team of R&D tax experts works closely with you, ensuring every claim is handled with care and precision.
Affordable and Transparent: We offer competitive pricing with no hidden costs.
Expertise You Can Trust: We have a proven track record of securing R&D tax credits for companies across various industries.
Maximising Your Return: We’re dedicated to maximizing your claim and ensuring you get the full benefit of the R&D Tax Credit scheme. Ask us anything – we’re here 9am to 5pm Mon – Fri
Frequently Asked SEIS /EIS Questions
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Yes, both start-ups and small businesses can claim R&D tax credits. SMEs (with fewer than 500 staff and less than £100 million in turnover) can claim up to 33% of their eligible R&D costs, making it a valuable incentive even for smaller companies investing in innovation.
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You can claim R&D tax credits up to 2 years after the end of the accounting period in which the R&D expenditure occurred. It’s essential to meet this deadline to benefit from the scheme.
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Yes, you can still claim R&D tax credits even if the project was unsuccessful. As long as the work attempted to resolve scientific or technological uncertainties, it qualifies for relief, regardless of the outcome.
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No, R&D tax credits can also be claimed for improving or refining existing products, processes, or services. The key requirement is that your project seeks to overcome a technological or scientific challenge.
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Yes, but the amount you can claim might be reduced. If your R&D project is funded by a grant, you may need to claim under the RDEC scheme, which offers a lower rate of relief compared to the SME scheme.
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No, R&D tax credits are available across all industries. Any company working on qualifying R&D activities, whether in manufacturing, software development, engineering, healthcare, or other sectors, can claim.