What does HMRC’s payout slowdown mean for R&D tax credit claims? 

Last month HMRC announced its slowing down payments on several R&D tax credit claims. This is to help focus on combating fraud and abuse of the scheme. 

The announcement follows recent reports that there has been an uplift in the volume of fraud in R&D tax relief. This is expected to cause delays to usual processing times.  

HMRC stated that whilst the majority of R&D tax credit claims are ‘genuine and will not be affected’, the move may cause delays to its processing times for other R&D tax credit claims to ‘ensure they prevent abuse of the relief’.

Based on the latest figures published by HMRC, R&D tax claims grew by almost 16% for the period 2019/20, with SMEs accounting for the majority of the increase.

About to start your claim?

In order to process payments more quickly, HMRC has asked people to ‘ensure that they have completed all entries on the R&D section of the corporation tax return (CT600 form) adding that ‘submitting additional information to support any claim, such as an R&D report, will also help HMRC to process claims quicker’. 

Already submitted a claim?

Once submitted, your claim is in HMRC’s hands, and there’s nothing you can do to make it move any faster. If your claim was submitted by a non specialist, you might be more likely to be hit with questions.

HMRC has also requested that claimants do not contact the R&D helpline to chase their claims. Instead, it has asked agents and companies to review their online account for updates on the status of claims.

Need help submitting your R&D tax credit claim?

At Zest R&D we specialise in preparing and submitting R&D reports to HMRC. If you are considering making a claim for R&D tax relief, or would like to discuss the status of an existing claim, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team.