I remember back in the day that my school assemblies always had a ‘thought for the day’. This blog will go one better and provide at least two which I hope will keep you alert and awake.
Research & Development (R & D) Tax Credits
This is a tax relief which has been around for donkey’s years, but much ignored.
The relief broadly works by giving a tax uplift to qualifying expenditure related to the function of carrying out R & D. Currently small and medium (SME) companies benefit by claiming a deduction equal to 225% of the qualifying R & D costs incurred in calculating its profits. If you make a ‘tax’ loss (after taking into account the uplifted qualifying R & D expenditure) your company can ‘surrender’ its tax loss for cash. Under the SME scheme, you can potentially get back from the Government £0.326 pence for every £1 worth of qualifying expenditure.
You are probably saying to yourself that your company does not carry out any R & D activity. The first image that probably comes to mind are boffins wearing white coats and thick glasses held together by sellotape. This is not the case! As long as the costs are incurred in achieving scientific or technological advancement, then it will fall under the ‘R & D’ banner. We have done numerous R & D claims for our clients involved in a variety of different industries. It is not just for companies in the pharmaceutical sector.
Us Brits love an underdog and people who try but fail (or fail miserably – the England football team, I am looking at you!). R & D is no exception to this. If your R & D project fails, you can still claim R & D tax relief.
If after reading this you think that you have or could have undertaken some R & D, please do get in touch with us.
Tax Code and Tax Arrears
It has been widely reported that from April 2015, H M Revenue & Customs will be able to collect tax debts for amounts up to £17,000 through your tax code.
This may sound like another ‘big brother measure’ but actually it may benefit many taxpayers. Collection via your tax code will mean you can spread the payments as well as possibly avoiding further interest charges.
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PLEASE NOTE: By the very nature of this type of information the details of tax law might have changed since they were published, so contact your Barnes Roffe partner before acting on any matter contained in these documents.