Introduction
A window manufacturer, based in the heart West Yorkshire had previously attempted to claim through HMRC’s R&D Tax Incentive. However, having spoken to an R&D Tax advisory firm over a 10minute phone conversation it was determined by the advisor that there was no qualifying activity being undertaken.
The company’s Financial Director had been a part of the claiming process at her previous firm and still believed that qualifying activity was being undertaken at the company, however, did not want to progress with this in-house after the advisor had said there was not anything there. A different client that had been through the claiming process with Counting King and had received their benefit, put us in touch with the manufacturers FD to see if we could help.
How Does Counting King Work?
Within a couple of days, we arranged and undertaken a technical site visit, explaining the incentive and its nuances in detail to the company’s key personnel to provide a base knowledge of how to distinguish between normal day-to-day activities and qualifying work. During the site visit, we also took a tour of the company’s facilities, speaking with all the company’s key personnel to get an in-depth look into the company’s processes, activities over the last two years, and conducted interview style conversations with key personnel.
Determining Eligibility
It quickly became apparent that there was a substantial amount of development work being undertaken by the company, from extensive adaptation and customisation of machinery to appreciably improve performance, reliability, functionality, etc., the manufacture of new products to provide a solution to a gap in the market, to the development of a state-of-the-art internal software solution, that provided substantially more functionality than any off-the-shelf solution. This had been missed during the initial short conversation the previous firm had with the company’s FD.
Site Visit
Following the site visit and follow-up calls and meetings, we were able to identify a substantial six-figure benefit across two years, which took the form of tax repayments and payable tax credits. This benefit has already been in part, reinvested into the company’s projects and aid growth during an extremely difficult time for companies across the UK.
Conclusion
We have recently seen an increase in companies being qualified incorrectly, either missing out completely on a claim they are entitled to, or projects being missed during the claim process. A large part of this has been due to the COVID-19 pandemic firms being slow to adapt to ensure that they are still maximising their client’s claims. If you think that you’re eligible to claim, don’t be afraid to get in touch with us.