HMRC tries to process 85% of R&D tax relief claims within 40 days. However, this can be affected by the scheme you use and the complexity of the claim.
According to HMRC, they typically try to process 85% of R&D tax credit claims within 40 days of submission. However, this can be affected by a number of factors, including the R&D scheme that you’re claiming through. For instance, merged R&D and RDEC scheme claims will typically take longer to process. In addition, there can be increased scrutiny of R&D claims to prevent fraud and errors, as well as requests for further information that may delay the claim.
In this article:
What can cause delays?
- Enquiries: If HMRC has questions about your claim or requires further information, they may initiate a formal enquiry, which can take up to 9 months or even longer to resolve.
- RDEC and Merged R&D claims: Historically, RDEC (Research and Development Expenditure Credit) claims have taken about twice as long to process as SME scheme claims. We expect the merged R&D scheme to take as long as the old RDEC scheme.
- Volume and resource allocation: Processing times can vary depending on HMRC’s internal resources and the volume of claims they receive. We have seen SME claims taking up to 4 months and RDEC claims up to 6 months. For the most up-to-date data on processing times, consult our payout timings page.
R&D Advance Funding
If you would rather avoid the uncertainty of when your claim will be paid, R&D Advance Funding allows you to receive 80% of your R&D tax relief up to 9 months before submitting your claim.
Compiling a claim
Compiling the claim can take anywhere from a day to several months depending on the claim process. Traditional advisors will employ expensive writers to draft your technical narratives while requiring significant input from your team over email, calls or face-to-face meetings. This claim process can take many months depending on the workload and priority of the claim advisor.
EmpowerRD simplifies the R&D claims process with an intuitive platform that guides your team through a straightforward, four-step process. Just provide a few bullet points about your R&D projects for each step, and our expert technical drafters will transform that information into a fully HMRC-compliant submission.
In addition, we have an integration with Xero which pulls your R&D expenditure data into your claim submission, allowing you to easily select the qualifying costs for your R&D work. You can see the full list of qualifying expenditures. We also automatically import any previous claim reports you may have from other advisors so that you have a historical basis to build your current claim.
As well as an intuitive platform, you also have a team of claims managers, Ex-HMRC inspectors and PhD industry experts working in the background, reviewing your claim to ensure compliance and optimisation. These measures not only reduce the time taken to compile a claim (it can be done in 8 hours rather than the 2-4 months typical with a traditional advisor) but our methodology is also shown to reduce the amount of time your team spends on your claim versus the traditional 3rd party writer method. We recommend having a look over our Case Studies to get a sense of the typical time-saving that claimants experience with us.
