Statistics: make of them what you will - UK patent box vs R&D reliefs

The UK tax authority has recently released statistics for take up of the patent box in 2013-14 (the first year of the relief); on the same day, it released the latest statistics on use of the UK’s R&D tax reliefs for the same tax year. The reports make for some interesting compare and contrast points:

Total claims in 2013-14
- patent box: 700
- R&D tax reliefs: 22,415

Total value of claims in 2013-14
- patent box: £342.9m
- R&D reliefs: £2.45bn

SME claims in 2013-14
- patent box: 475 (68%)
- R&D reliefs: 19,990 (95%)

Value of SME claims in 2013-14
- patent box: £15.7m (5%)
- R&D reliefs: £1.165bn (48%)

The largest claimant sector (for both patent box and R&D) is, unsurprisingly, manufacturing (63% of patent box claims; 30% of R&D claims). The second largest for R&D is Professional, Scientific & Technical, with about 20% of claims - but this sector only made 6.3% of patent box claims. This might relate to the nature of the patent box, and particularly the extra hurdle for claiming on services income. The other sectors are somewhat more difficult to analyse as numbers of patent box claims are so low that sectors have been combined to prevent commercial information being disclosed.

The R&D relief requires a company to be undertaking a project which seeks an advance in the global state of knowledge in an area of science or technology, it would seem logical that a successful R&D-relief qualifying project would often lead to something capable of being patented – and, in the 14 years for which we have R&D statistics, 141,000 claims for relief have been made. Fair enough, R&D relief claims can be made for unsuccessful projects, but out of 141,000 R&D relief claims, it seems pretty likely that there are more than 700 companies within the scope of the patent box … the report doesn’t speculate upon why the take up is so low in terms of numbers (and for comparison, the impact note when the patent box was introduced estimated the first year cost to the Treasury at £500m).

R&D tax credits for SMEs - help the government get it right (or at least better)

Heads up - HMRC is consulting improvements to the radically underclaimed R&D tax credits for SMEs.

They're looking at how to promote awareness of the credits, the design and understanding of the rules, and - most importantly in my view, the new advance assurance process. One of the main stumbling blocks to claiming the R&D credit has been uncertainty about what does and doesn't qualify: most people seem to assume you need to be doing something that involved a long and complicated chemical name, but it's much wider than that. The advance assurance process is intended to enable SMEs to get confirmation that their R&D qualifies ahead of time, rather than putting a claim in and hoping for the best.

Have a look at the consultation and think about commenting - the more people contribute, the better the chances of getting something workable for SMEs. Comments need to be with HMRC by midday on 27 February 2015

More R&D tax relief claims needed!

HMRC has published the latest set of details on the number and value of R&D tax relief and R&D tax credit claims, covering claims in 2008-9. There is an increase in the number and value of claims, but it is surprisingly small considering that 2008-9 was the catch-up deadline to get in claims for relief on expenditure over the previous six years (the relief now has to be claimed in the company tax return or amended return, so companies have a much shorter time limit to claim).

The total number of companies claiming the relief was 8,350 in 2008-9, an increase of just 10% in a catch-up year that was well-publicised - that seems a very low number, and it may make the tax relief vulnerable to change/removal in the upcoming consultation on how IP is taxed in the UK.

If you're small and do other people's R&D ...

The UK's Intellectual Property Office has just published a note on the relaxation of R & D tax rules in the current issue of its IP Insight e-magazine. The current rules for claiming additional tax relief on research and development (R&D) are due to be relaxed. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) carrying out R&D will be able to claim the additional relief on their activities, even if they don’t own the intellectual property that will result from their R&D.

The new regime will apply to any expenditure on R&D which falls within an accounting period ending on or after 9 December 2009. This shift should help subcontractors carrying out research for larger companies. At present, to be eligible for the additional tax relief on R&D, SMEs must own any intellectual property created by their R&D activities.

The SME Scheme is open to organisations with fewer than 500 employees, an annual turnover of less than 100 million euros and a balance sheet not exceeding 86 million euros, so long as they have an annual spend on R&D of at least a token £10,000. There may be more to come, since public consultations on IP taxation are promised for later this year.

You can find further detail on R&D relief for Corporation Tax on the HM Revenue & Custom website here.