Recover the tax relief your business is owed

1. 1

   Complete the online assessment

   A 5-minute form. Company details, your activities, which reliefs you think may apply. We review your answers alongside your company's public record.

   5 minutes
2. 2

   Get your free written assessment

   An HMRC-registered specialist reviews your details and sends a written summary: whether you likely qualify, which relief applies, and an indicative recovery range. No obligation.

   Free written assessment
3. 3

   We make the introduction

   We introduce you to the right specialist. They prepare and submit the claim. You pay nothing unless HMRC approves it.

   Pay only on approval

For UK tax purposes, R&D is defined in the guidelines issued by the Secretary of State for Science, Research and Innovation (the BEIS guidelines), incorporated by reference into the Corporation Tax Act 2009. The definition applies across all sectors and is not limited to laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, or technology businesses.

A project qualifies if it satisfies three cumulative conditions.

Seeking an advance in science or technology. The advance must be in the overall field of knowledge, not merely new to your business. Running an existing process on newer hardware does not qualify. Developing an approach that resolves a technical problem for which no established solution exists does.

Overcoming scientific or technological uncertainty. Uncertainty exists where a competent professional working in the relevant field could not readily deduce the outcome from existing knowledge. This includes uncertainty about whether something is achievable at all, and uncertainty about the most efficient method of achieving a known aim.

Systematic work to resolve that uncertainty. Informal trial and error without any structured approach is unlikely to satisfy HMRC. The company must demonstrate that technically qualified people applied reasoned investigation to the problem, even where that work was not formally documented at the time it was carried out.

Activities that frequently satisfy the test include:

• Software development involving genuinely novel technical architecture, algorithm design, or integration challenges
• Engineering processes where existing methods are inadequate and a solution must be derived from first principles
• Formulation of novel materials, chemicals, or compounds with properties not previously achieved
• Prototype testing to resolve uncertainty about performance, durability, or manufacturability
• Pharmaceutical, clinical, biological, and agricultural research conducted under scientific uncertainty

A project does not need to succeed to qualify. Work that results in a failed prototype or an abandoned investigation can still generate a valid claim, provided the company was genuinely seeking an advance and the uncertainty was real. HMRC requires a qualifying attempt, not a successful outcome.

If you are unsure whether your activities meet the definition, our free eligibility checker provides an immediate indicative answer, and a free written assessment from a specialist in our network confirms your position without obligation.

1. 1

   Identify qualifying projects

   The specialist reviews your activities against the HMRC definition: work that seeks an advance in science or technology, involves genuine scientific or technological uncertainty, and is addressed through systematic investigation. Staff interviews and technical workshops are the standard discovery method.

   Discovery and scoping
2. 2

   Confirm the applicable scheme and rate

   For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, most companies fall under the merged RDEC scheme at a 20% above-the-line credit (15p net per £1 for profitable companies). R&D-intensive SMEs with qualifying expenditure representing 30% or more of total expenditure may qualify for ERIS at a 27% credit rate.

   Scheme and rate confirmation
3. 3

   Submit the Claim Notification Form if required

   Companies claiming for the first time, or that have not made an R&D claim in any of the three accounting periods immediately before the claim period, must file a Claim Notification Form with HMRC. This must be submitted within six months of the end of the relevant accounting period and is a mandatory prerequisite before the CT600 can be filed.

   Deadline: 6 months after accounting period end
4. 4

   Complete the Additional Information Form

   Mandatory for all R&D claims submitted from 8 August 2023, the Additional Information Form (AIF) requires a description of each qualifying project, the name of the senior officer responsible for the claim, and agent details where an adviser is involved. The AIF must be submitted to HMRC before or at the same time as the CT600 tax return.

   Mandatory for all claims since August 2023
5. 5

   Prepare the technical and cost report

   The specialist prepares a written technical narrative describing each qualifying project, the scientific or technological uncertainty it addressed, the systematic approach taken to resolve it, and how expenditure was apportioned to qualifying activities. Staffing costs, subcontractor payments (subject to the 65% cap for unconnected parties), externally provided workers, consumables, and eligible cloud and data costs are each quantified and evidenced.

   Core claim deliverable
6. 6

   File the amended CT600

   The R&D claim is submitted via an amendment to the company tax return (CT600), using the CT600L supplementary pages for merged RDEC and ERIS claims. Returns can be amended within two years of the end of the accounting period, which typically allows companies to recover tax from their two most recently completed periods.

   Within 2 years of accounting period end

Common questions

Frequently asked questions