Insights
The fine print, decoded.
Plain-English guidance on R&D tax relief — written by people who prepare and defend claims every day.
17 published
4 November 2026 The claim notification form is being removed. Not yet, and not for everyone. The government announced in the Budget on 28 October 2026 that it will remove the R&D claim notification form for claims made on or after 1 April 2027. The Finance Bill 2026-27 will legislate the change, and it is not yet law. 
2 November 2026 How to Build an Internal R&D Documentation Habit That Makes Claims Easier Engineers focus on solving the problem in front of them, not on writing the story of what happened. Most work evidence these days is locked in various email chains. When we start asking what happened, we tend to get a sigh and the response, ‘I’ll have to look through my emails for that data’.
26 October 2026 Is the R&D Tax Credit Scheme Still Worth Claiming? An Honest Assessment Every so often an engineering director asks us a version of the same question: after the reforms, the pre-notification, the extra forms and the HMRC scrutiny, are R&D tax credits still worth the effort? It is a fair question, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a sales pitch. 
19 October 2026 The Additional Information Form (AIF): What HMRC Now Expects and Why It Changed Everything For years, an R&D tax relief claim could be just a number on a tax return and little else. HMRC saw the figure. It did not see the projects behind it, the costs split by category, or who had signed it off. If it wanted to know more, it opened an enquiry and asked. 
5 October 2026 Why Subcontractor Costs Are One of the Most Misunderstood Parts of an R&D Claim Subcontractor costs in an R&D claim look simple on the surface. You paid an outside firm to do some of the technical work, so you add the invoice to the claim. In practice, it is one of the areas where we most often see claims overstated, understated, or built on the wrong assumptions. 
1 October 2026 How the Winemakers Guide Corked an R&D Claim Two companies lost their R&D tax relief appeals at the First-tier Tribunal in September 2026, three weeks apart, and in neither case was the company accused of making anything up. Both lost because they could not establish what the existing knowledge in their field could and could not already do. 
30 September 2026 Eight thousand companies stopped claiming R&D relief. Here's what actually happened. HMRC's new statistics show claim volumes down 17% and first-time applicants down for a fifth straight year — while the total paid out went up. An enquiry-side view of what the numbers mean. 
28 September 2026 HMRC R&D Compliance Check Letter? What It's Really Asking and What to Do Next A compliance check letter on your R&D claim is a request to justify figures, not an accusation. How to read what HMRC is really asking, what to do in the first few days, and what not to send. 
21 September 2026 What the Merged R&D Scheme Means for SMEs Claiming for the First Time The merged R&D scheme replaced the SME scheme for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Here is what changed, what a claim is actually worth now, and the notification deadline that can invalidate a first claim before it is written. 
7 September 2026 When Does It Make Sense to Outsource Your R&D Tax Claim vs. Doing It In-House? Every growing engineering or technology business eventually reaches the same crossroads: R&D activity is increasing, the relief is significant, and someone in finance asks the obvious question — should we build this capability internally or bring in a specialist? There's no single right answer.
31 August 2026 What Should Your R&D Tax Adviser Actually Be Doing? A Checklist for Business Owners Here is a practical checklist. It is not a pitch for our own service; these are the things any competent R&D tax adviser should be doing for you, regardless of who you use
24 August 2026 A care home, the pandemic, and an £880,000 R&D claim that failed On 6 August 2026, the First-tier Tribunal dismissed an appeal by Tanglewood Care Services Limited against HMRC's decision to remove an R&D tax relief claim worth £880,286. 
13 July 2026 The HMRC R&D Crackdown: What’s Changed and Where Scrutiny Is Focused in 2025/26 If you filed an R&D tax claim more than a couple of years ago and you’re now due to file another, don’t expect the same process. 
3 October 2024 You Think You Qualify for R&D Tax Relief? R&D tax relief is an extremely valuable incentive for innovative businesses, which is precisely why it is so frequently misunderstood and misapplied. 
10 November 2022 Reforms to Research and Development (R&D) Tax Reliefs In the Autumn Statement delivered in November 2022, the government announced significant reforms to the UK’s R&D tax relief schemes. 
18 September 2020 What Actually Happens When HMRC Opens an R&D Enquiry How an HMRC enquiry into an R&D tax claim works from start to finish: why claims are picked, what HMRC asks for, how long it takes, how it ends, and what you can do if you disagree. 
1 July 2020 R&D Tax Credits for Loss Making Innovators Many clients and prospective clients wrongly believe that they are unable to make an R&D Tax Claim because they made a loss and didn’t pay any tax in the financial year. Get in touch