Autumn Budget 2018 – Proposed changes to R&D Tax Credits

In this week’s budget the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond announced that some changes will be made to the Payable Tax Credit element of the SME Research & Development Scheme for accounting periods which commence on or after 1st April 2020.

“Preventing abuse of R&D tax relief for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – To help prevent abuse of the payable credit, from 1 April 2020, the amount of payable R&D tax credit that a qualifying loss-making company can receive in any tax year will be restricted to three times the company’s total PAYE and NICs liability for that year. This will ensure the relief is robust against identified abuse, including fraud, following the prevention by HMRC of fraudulent claims worth £300 million. The government will consult on this change.”

The announcement can be found at reference 4.19 of the Budget 2018 paper, which can be read
here.

If you’d like to discuss how the proposed changes might impact on your business or to find out if you qualify for R&D Tax Credits, please click here to get in touch. You can also contact Stephen Dyson on 0161 464 6351 or email sdyson@rdfunding.co.uk.