Member Article

North East accountants save SMEs over £19.5m in 12 months

Haines Watts North East has revealed that innovative companies have saved over £19.5m through their assistance in reclaiming Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credits, with many having been unaware they qualified for the support.

A total of 302 R&D Tax Credit claims were submitted by the Newcastle and Darlington offices in the financial year 2017/18 - an increase of over 70 per cent on the previous 12 months - generating over £100m of enhanced tax deduction for limited companies.

Jonathan Scott, Tax Partner at Haines Watts, commented: “Awareness of the relief is on the rise, as we’ve seen through the substantial increase in claims we’re dealing with. However, vast numbers of companies across the region are missing out on valuable R&D tax credits – at an average of £55,000 per year – due to the fact they don’t fully understand the legislation or don’t have the expertise to assemble a claim.

“The North East submitted 1,370 claims for R&D relief in 2016-17. Compare this to the 2,625 submitted by our neighbours in Yorkshire and the 4,330 by the North West and you start to really get a picture of how much the North East is lagging behind.”

Internationally acclaimed architecture practice JDDK is one of the many North East businesses Haines Watts has supported with R&D tax credit claims.

Mura Mullan, Director at JDDK, said: “The successful R&D claims Haines Watts helped us with have enabled the practice to invest in further Architectural Research and Development work we do - both in initial design work and in post occupation evaluation studies which are then shared with other professionals in the sector. The Haines Watts team have been very helpful throughout the process and we’ve benefited greatly from having access to their expertise.”

The top 15 firm is now keen to ensure that other companies in the region are maximising the opportunities available to them, by educating business owners and entrepreneurs on R&D relief and what activity can qualify.

Jonathan adds: “We’ve partnered with Innovation SuperNetwork to help boost awareness of the benefits of R&D tax relief, and we’ve recently been appointed as a Solution Provider for R&D with the Scaleup North East programme.”

To meet the rising demand for specialist R&D tax advice, Haines Watts has significantly increased its R&D tax team, growing from a sole tax technician in 2014 to its current ten-strong team, including recently appointed Tax Manager, Sara Andrews and R&D Tax Senior, Mario Minchella.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Haines Watts North East .