Partner Article

North East Accountancy Firm Launches R&D Advisory Service

ROBSON Laidler Accountants, which has offices in Jesmond and Durham, has launched a service that has already saved its clients almost £395,000 by realising and reclaiming Research and Development (R&D) tax credits available to them from HMRC.
Advisors at the Firm have established the new R&D tax credits offering to complement its accounting, business advisory and wealth management services, to help businesses understand and claim R&D tax relief. The new service came about as the team at Robson Laidler spotted a gap in the market, as many of its clients were often unaware of the tax relief they were entitled to. One successful R&D tax credit relief claim has been made by North East businessman Andy Hook of the popular Newcastle restaurant Blackfriars. Andy has shaved money off his tax bills by investing in research to help him develop medieval food offerings, which is now proving popular with customers. Andy Hook, managing director of Hooked on Group said: “We have spent years working with Durham University researching medieval recipes and re-enacting banquets at our 13th century Dominican friary. Although I spent more than a decade working as an engineer where R&D was an integral part of the businesses, I’d never thought about it in terms of our historical culinary research until Robson Laidler brought it to my attention.” Jack Spoor, client manager, who heads up the R&D advisory team said: “We trialled this service with a few of our clients last year and after the success of many, it has grown to be a very popular value-added service. “Many business owners believe that research and development tax credits are just for high level scientific studies or cutting-edge design work in the manufacturing and technology fields. In fact, it can be in any sector. Any business wanting to improve products or processes through research may be entitled to claim HMRC’s R&D tax relief. Projects might include software development, engineering design, new construction techniques, bio energy, cleantech, agri-food and farming, and health and wellbeing. We can also claim for projects from up to two-years previous, so some of the returns we are getting back are large sums of money. “Our new service will provide advice to businesses on R&D tax credit or relief at the start of projects, offer support throughout and also assist companies with preparing detailed R&D reports and any subsequent negotiations with HMRC, to quickly and effectively submit successful claims. “By offering this advisory service we hope we can achieve twofold: educate business owners on all aspects of R&D tax credits; and help reward businesses with the tax savings they deserve. Currently HMRC estimate that over 100,000 companies who undertake qualifying R&D activity do not make a claim for R&D tax credits. By getting out and talking to clients we can encourage them to look at all projects, old and new, through the lens of research and development. In doing this, companies can find grounds to make a historic claim based on previous activity or justify a future project safe in the knowledge that it qualifies for tax relief under R&D.” The team at Robson Laidler believe passionately in embracing innovation, having introduced cloud digital accounting software and cashflow projection technologies into its business operations last year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robson Laidler .