R&D eligibility checker
Seven questions at most, and fewer if your answers settle it early — about a minute. It applies the tests that decide most claims and tells you plainly where you land, including when the answer is no. Nothing is stored, and there is no sign-up.
Four things decide whether work is qualifying R&D. There must be a project: a defined piece of work with an objective, a start and an end. It must aim at an advance in science or technology — new knowledge or capability in the field, or an appreciable improvement to what already exists. There must be scientific or technological uncertainty: at the outset, it must not have been known whether the aim was achievable, or how to achieve it in practice. And that uncertainty must be one a competent professional in the field could not readily resolve using existing knowledge.
Difficulty is not the test: work can be complicated, slow and expensive while remaining entirely predictable to an expert, and a solution that was merely new to your company was not new to the field. The checker below works through these same four tests, in the order an adviser would.
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Who is claiming
What kind of business would make the claim?
R&D tax relief is a corporation tax relief, so this is the first gate.
Nothing is stored. No sign-up.
What this is, and what it is not
This checker walks the same ground a scoping call covers, in the same order. It is a first read on the answers you give, not a review of your claim and not tax advice: it cannot see your contracts, your cost records or the technical detail that decides a real position. Every route through it ends in the same place — a conversation with a chartered adviser, or a link to the guide that explains the point properly.
It will tell you when a claim looks unlikely. That is deliberate. If you would rather talk it through than click through, that costs nothing either.
Tests last reviewed 24 August 2026.
Want the answer properly checked?
A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. You will speak to a qualified adviser, not a salesperson.