LINK:  ‘HMRC gave me £49,000 tax relief, but wants it back’ – BBC News

The BBC article caused a little stir this week and although we usually welcome a spotlight on this niche area, we found it quite disappointing.

Anyone claiming R&D tax relief should be informed that HMRC have 12 months (sometimes slightly longer) from the time a claim is submitted in which to open a compliance check.  If the claim is found to be inaccurate, they will be asked to pay back some/all of the benefit received.  This seems to be what has happened and so is it really ‘news’?

We could have offered the BBC far more interesting topics such as how HMRC are trusting poorly trained caseworkers to judge whether a claim is valid or not without a clear grasp of the legislation, or how large R&D advisory firms appear to be getting away with submitting invalid claims seemingly with no consequence or perhaps the numerous ways in which HMRC is breaching its own charter when dealing with R&D compliance checks.

If you have any questions on this blog or anything R&D related, please contact us at [email protected].

Posted: 14 Mar 2024