Tax relief strains belief

It is a fair bet that the few members of Science|Business community don't know if their company does any R&D. But a third of the people surveyed by Deloitte gave this as one reason for not claiming R&D tax relief.

 

The next largest response was for the reason "Intend to make a claim but haven’t got around to it
yet". More than 20 per cent said that they weren't aware of R&D tax relief. Strangely, the least "popular" excuse was that the "claim process was too difficult".

 

Deloitte surveyed 560 Small and Medium Enterprises. Of the 160 manufacturers in the survey, "71% of eligible businesses were not claiming the relief".

 

The regional spread of the results may, or may not, reinforce stereotypes about the local attitudes to money. Northerners, usually reckoned to be canny with their cash, are more likely to claim, with 50 per cent of eligible manufacturers putting in a claim. In the Midlands, reckoned to be the heart of British manufacturing, the number is a startling zero. As Deloitte puts it "all manufacturers surveyed in the Midlands eligible to claim R&D tax relief are failing to do so".

 

Midlanders even manage to do worse than those effete southerners, who are reckoned by those living in other regions to have more money than is good for them. "In the South-East, 63% of manufacturers are not claiming R&D tax relief...".

 

Deloitte offers a simple checklist of three questions that manufacturers should ask themselves to see if they carry out eligible activities: 

There's even a  free guide from Deloitte "outlining the most common misconceptions".