{"id":26994,"date":"2025-07-01T15:46:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/?p=26994"},"modified":"2025-07-01T14:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:46:09","slug":"proving-innovation-to-facilitate-rd-tax-relief-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/proving-innovation-to-facilitate-rd-tax-relief-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Proving innovation to facilitate R&amp;D tax relief claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Matt Storey, Partner<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When determining whether an R&amp;D tax relief claim is eligible, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will primarily seek to understand whether it is truly work that seeks to advance a field of science or technology.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This means the work cannot be routine maintenance or upgrades, and generally will not involve cosmetic work or market research.<\/p>\n<p>Proving that work is truly innovative can be a challenge, so it is worth understanding the key signs that HMRC look out for when assessing claims.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What does HMRC consider an advance in a field of science or technology?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Fundamentally, HMRC consider something to be an advance if it is either something that has physical consequences or is an increase in overall knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that the work has to be entirely original, as very few innovations throughout human history could be considered wholly unique.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, it is possible to adapt a system or process from one field of science or technology into another, provided the success of doing so is uncertain.<\/p>\n<p>Any work must be undertaken with the goal of providing an appreciable, non-trivial improvement to the overall field of science or technology.<\/p>\n<p>An appreciable improvement is defined by HMRC as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Creating a process, material, device, product, or service that increases overall knowledge or capability in a field of science or technology.<\/li>\n<li>Appreciably improving an existing process, material, device, product, or service<\/li>\n<li>Using science or technology to copy the effect of a current process, material, device, product, or service in a new or improved way<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is worth highlighting how HMRC states that \u201ca process, material, device, product, or service will not be appreciably improved if it simply brings a company into line with overall knowledge or capability in science or technology, even though it may be completely new to the company or the company\u2019s trade.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How do I prove that I have sought an advance in a field of science or technology?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Record-keeping is the best way to support an R&amp;D tax relief claim.<\/p>\n<p>HMRC need to be able to verify the work that has taken place as well as understand the qualifying expenditure that has been put into the project.<\/p>\n<p>Actual work needs to have been undertaken on the project within the financial year, as it is a portion of the money spent doing this that can be reclaimed as an R&amp;D tax relief.<\/p>\n<p>A good guide as to whether the work you have conducted qualifies is whether it involved experimentation from a competent professional.<\/p>\n<p>If a competent professional, a qualified individual with experience in the field, cannot readily deduce how to achieve something, it is likely to qualify for R&amp;D tax relief.<\/p>\n<p>Be sure to maintain clear records at every stage of the R&amp;D process to better enable more accurate, compliant claims.<\/p>\n<p>We can help support an R&amp;D tax relief application by guiding you through the HMRC guidelines and helping you understand your qualifying expenditure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t miss out on the vital funds needed to keep innovating. <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/contact-us\/\"><strong>Speak to our team today<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Matt Storey, Partner When determining whether an R&amp;D tax relief claim is eligible, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/proving-innovation-to-facilitate-rd-tax-relief-claims\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Proving innovation to facilitate R&amp;D tax relief claims<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-business","category-matt-storey"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26995,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26994\/revisions\/26995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}