Businesses sleepwalk into risky tax relief claims

Many UK businesses are taking huge risks when making research and development (R&D) tax credit claims reveals a YouGov poll of 2 004 senior decision makers. Results of the research show that 90% of firms did not know that the market for R&D tax advice is largely unregulated so that anyone can set up and make claims on behalf of others.

The report UK R&D tax relief: businesses sleepwalking towards disaster found that more than two fifths (43%) of respondents incorrectly thought HMRC was responsible for regulation. Despite this seemingly ill-informed position only one in five businesses claiming R&D tax relief are worried about the risk of an HMRC enquiry. 

ForrestBrown which commissioned the research predicts that the number of enquiries into R&D claims will increase substantially in 2021. It says HMRC has recruited 100 new R&D staff so it will have...