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Are you missing out on R&D?
International companies: the latest UK R&D figures are in
R&D tax credits are a tax relief designed to encourage greater R&D spending in the UK, leading in turn to greater investment in innovation. Since 2013, this has been enhanced by Patent Box relief, a reduced corporation tax rate being phased in for taxable profits attributable to patents, which aims to get the UK’s tax rate on relevant profits down to just 10%.
Figures released by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) last month show that nearly 16,000 R&D tax credit claims were made in the year to 31 March 2013, with the total amount of R&D support claimed hitting £1.4bn. This is a significant increase on the previous year and means more than £9.5 billion in tax relief has been claimed since the R&D tax regime was introduced. While for some companies this means a reduced tax bill, for many others it results in a cash receipt from HMRC.
So can you benefit?
Well, while tax should rarely be the driving factor in determining your business location, it does make the UK even more attractive as a location for developing and exploiting your IP. Add to this the new Creative Industry tax reliefs available in the UK and surely every international CFO of a technology based company should have the UK on their shortlist.