A defensible R&D tax credit claim is built from four things: contemporaneous records, a technical narrative specific to your projects, costs that reconcile to your accounts, and deadlines met. HMRC checked around one in six claims in 2023-24, its latest published figure; the Additional Information Form is mandatory; and claim notification can invalidate a claim before it is even made. Generic submissions and year-end scrambles no longer survive contact with that system.
Here is what works, and what to avoid, based on the claims we prepare and the enquiries we defend.
What does good preparation look like?
Keep records as the work happens. Contemporaneous evidence is the backbone of a claim that holds. Record project activities, experiments, failures, uncertainties, who worked on what and the direct costs as the work progresses, not in the weeks before your filing deadline. When HMRC asks questions, a dated record from the middle of the project is worth ten retrospective summaries.
Leave enough time. Rushed claims produce errors, omissions and stretched eligibility judgements. Proper project analysis, evidence gathering, review by your competent professionals and a carefully drafted Additional Information Form all take time that a deadline scramble does not allow.
Understand the definition. You do not need to become a tax specialist, but knowing the shape of what counts as qualifying R&D helps you recognise eligible projects early and keep records that map onto what HMRC will ask.
Engage a regulated adviser early. A chartered firm involved from the start can confirm whether claim notification applies, set up record-keeping that fits your workflow and identify eligible projects accurately, before decisions get made that cannot be unmade.
What sinks claims most often?
Generic narratives. A description that could apply to any company in your sector reads as exactly that. The narrative must state the specific advance sought, the baseline knowledge that existed at the start, and the uncertainties that remained. Vague content undermines the credibility of everything filed with it.
Commercial benefits dressed as advances. Market growth, customer satisfaction, scalability and revenue potential are not advances in science or technology. A narrative that leans on them invites HMRC to conclude the project falls outside the relief, even where genuine technological uncertainty existed underneath.
Assuming all subcontractor spend qualifies. It does not. What you can include depends on the nature of the work and on whether the subcontractor is connected, and under the current rules on who claims contracted-out R&D, sometimes the claim is not yours at all. Overclaimed subcontractor costs are a common enquiry trigger.
Missed deadlines. First-time claimants, and companies that have not claimed in the three years ending with the notification deadline, must notify HMRC within six months of the end of the period of account. Miss it and the claim is invalid, however good the R&D. Our claim notification checker tells you where you stand in under a minute.
Why does this matter more in deep tech?
Because the qualifying work is real but technically dense. In sectors like life sciences, the gap between what the scientists did and what the claim says they did is where enquiries breed. Matthew Jones puts it this way: “We believe in educating our clients and sharing knowledge to ensure everyone is working from the same page. Engaging early with the right adviser provides access to timely guidance on structure, strategy and evidence gathering throughout the project, helping to build a compliant claim from the very beginning.”
A well-prepared claim also changes what an enquiry feels like. When the records exist and the narrative is honest, an HMRC enquiry becomes a process to manage rather than a crisis. That is the standard we prepare every claim to; how we work explains the process end to end.
If your next claim deserves better preparation than your last one got, talk it through with a chartered adviser.
This article describes the rules as they stood at the review date above. The rules change: for the current position, start with our guides or talk to us.
