Should I refile my accounts when submitting aclaim?

You do not need to refile or restate your accounts when submitting a research and development tax credit claim. Indeed, the R&D tax credit doesn’t need to be submitted in your accounts at all. It’s better to submit your claim as an amended CT600, entirely separate from your accounts. By doing this, the claim is first seen by the specialist R&D tax credit unit at HMRC, rather than the general company tax team. That typically speeds up the processing time and reduces unnecessary queries.

You may be concerned that late adjustments to your corporation tax calculation would demonstrate fallibility in the information in your accounts, however, that’s not necessary in this case. Although you should restate your accounts if you know the information in them to be false, the corporation tax number is only a provision and therefore any changes to it would not be considered an indiscretion or contrary to the Companies Act.

In order to submit an amended CT600, we recommend using one of the many software packages available to manage the company tax return. Xero Tax works best if you’re a Xero user. If you’re not a Xero user, then we would recommend consulting the government-approved list for alternative software suppliers.

We cannot advise on the exact process of creating the CT600 in the full variety of software programmes available, but one issue we see arise commonly is that claimants may forget to attach their separate tax computations and technical narratives. This will, of course, create a delay and potentially extra scrutiny, so ensure that those are submitted alongside the amended CT600.

If you’re looking for a deeper understanding of the accounting treatment of R&D tax credits, then consult our guide on the matter. Or get in touch with one of our team if you want further advice on your R&D claim.