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R and D Tax Relief for Software
Eight chapters on what actually qualifies, what the merged scheme and ERIS pay, the two deadlines that kill claims outright, and how software claims survive the enquiry wave, all worked on one £180,000 development budget.
- The gateway drawn honestly: what qualifies, and the clever work that does not
- The arithmetic worked: £27,000, £29,160 or £48,546 on the same £180,000
- The enquiry chapter: what fails, what survives, and the file that decides it
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Who this checklist is for
Spending on development, never claimed
You spend on development and have never claimed. The six-month notification window after the period end is the deadline that cannot be recovered, and checking it is the first move the book asks for.
Claiming through an agent on commission
An agent on commission drafted the claim and the pitch was that everything qualifies. Chapter two lists the clever work that does not, which is the reading to do before renewing that engagement.
An enquiry has landed, or feels likely
The last two chapters are the survival kit: what HMRC tests first, what boilerplate loses, and the contemporaneous file that wins.
FACTS
The merged scheme pays 20 per cent and the credit is taxable: £36,000 gross on the worked £180,000, netting £27,000 for a profit-maker and £29,160 for a loss-maker, with payable credit capped at £20,000 plus 300 per cent of the payroll bill. Loss-makers at 30 per cent R and D intensity reach ERIS instead.
£48,546
the ERIS ceiling on the worked £180,000, against £27,000 merged
six months
the notification window that kills first claims when missed
FACTS
First-time claimants must notify HMRC within six months of the period of account ending, and every claim needs the Additional Information Form or it is treated as never made. Software claims sit in the middle of the enquiry campaign, and what survives is records kept during the work, not narratives reconstructed for the return.