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HMRC R&D Tax Credits Statistics

The R&D Tax Credit Scheme has been operating since 2000.  R&D tax credits are a tax relief designed to encourage greater R&D spending, leading in turn to greater investment in innovation. They work by either reducing a company’s liability to corporation tax or by making a payment to the company.

In October 2019, HMRC issued the latest statistics on the number of companies claiming research and development (R&D) tax credits and the value of claims for the year 2017-18 so far. Key highlights are included below.

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R&D Tax Credit Claims from 2000-01 and 2017-18

Over
300,000
Claims
of which
42,075
are SME

R&D Tax Credit Claims for 2017-18 so far

Total claims
48,635
of which
42,075
are SME
£4.3b
of R&D tax relief support has been claimed

R&D Tax Credit Claims Comparative: 2016-17 vs. 2015-16

Due to the nature of the scheme, returns for the latest financial year reported (2017-18) can still be submitted past the cut-off date for the publication. As a result, data for 2017-18 is not yet complete. To avoid misleading comparisons between years, HMRC have compared the years 2016-17 to 2015-16 in the publication when discussing change between years, and 2017-18 when discussing in-year characteristics.

total
52,533
claims made

20%
Increase from previous year

SME claims
45,045

22%
Increase from previous year

£4.4b
in amount claimed

14%
Increase from previous year

68%
Manufacturing, Professional, Scientific & Technical, Information and Communication
Map 01 1

HMRC continues to show support for the R&D scheme to help drive innovation which is great news for companies who spend money in the area of R&D. Understanding R&D can be challenging and can take the focus away from your business. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss any questions you have regarding R&D. Look forward to hearing from you.

Source: HMRC R&D Tax Credits Statistics (October 2019)