LimestoneGrey works alongside general accountancy practices as the specialist R&D arm they choose not to build in-house. Because R&D tax relief is all we do, there is no conflict of interest: we will never pitch your client for accounts, audit, payroll or anything else. You keep the client relationship; we handle the R&D claim to a chartered standard, from first interview through to submission to HMRC.
Why do practices refer R&D work out?
Because the compliance burden has outgrown the sideline model. Claim notification windows, the Additional Information Form, the merged scheme and ERIS rules, contracted-out R&D tests and HMRC checking roughly one in six claims: keeping current takes daily immersion. Referring to a regulated specialist protects your client and your own PCRT position, since advising on a filing position you cannot fully support is a risk to your practice as well as to them.
How does working together work?
Two models, and you choose per client:
- Referral. You introduce us, we engage the client directly, and we keep you informed throughout. Your client deals with a named chartered adviser, and you see everything before it is filed.
- White-label support. You keep the client-facing role and we do the specialist work behind the scenes: eligibility assessment, competent professional interviews, the technical report, cost schedules and the AIF, delivered ready to file, or submitted by us as HMRC-registered agents if you would rather hand the whole sequence over.
Practices with in-house R&D capability also use us ad hoc, for a complicated contracted-out position, a grant interaction or a second opinion on a marginal project. Commercial terms are agreed with your practice before any client work starts.
What do you keep doing?
Everything you do now. You remain the accountant: year-end accounts, wider tax planning and the day-to-day relationship. The R&D claim itself we prefer to take end to end: the computations, the technical report, the Additional Information Form and the submission to HMRC as registered tax agents, usually by amending the return, with everything sighted by you before it goes in. The process is the same one described on how we work.
What happens if HMRC opens an enquiry?
We stand behind the claim if HMRC asks questions, as part of the original engagement, and enquiry support is included as standard. We also take on enquiries into claims that other advisers prepared, which is often how new practice relationships begin.
Why LimestoneGrey?
We are a member firm of both CIOT and ICAEW: regulated by ICAEW, bound by PCRT and registered with HMRC as a tax adviser, led by a dual-qualified chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser, with every claim signed off by a chartered adviser. When you refer a client to us, you are lending us your reputation, and we treat it that way.
“In working with LimestoneGrey we’ve not only been able to refer clients to a reputable agency for a very important topic, but it’s also allowed us to become more educated on the topic as a result.”
Jamie, Cennen Solutions Limited
Start the conversation
If you have a client who might qualify, or you want a standing arrangement for your practice, contact us or call 0330 223 4 223. We are happy to start with a single claim and let the work speak for itself.
Written by Lisa James. Last reviewed July 2026.
