Manufacturers top the R&D tax relief table - is your sector lagging behind?
Manufacturing firms claimed £1.25bn using R&D tax relief in the 2017-18 financial year, more than any other industry sector, a study from R&D tax credit experts, RIFT Research and Development reveals.
Manufacturing firms also made the highest number of claims over the period, at 11,925.
The R&D tax relief scheme is effectively Corporation Tax relief that can reduce a company’s tax bill and R&D specialists, RIFT, have dissected the latest industry data. This shows which sectors are submitting the most claims, the sectors being awarded the most in successful claims, and those that are bringing home the largest sums financially with just a single claim.
Other major users of R&D tax relief
Professional, Scientific & Technical firms came in second by amount, claiming £1.02bn annually. Behind that sector was Information & Communication (£820m), Wholesale & Retail Trade, Repairs (£235m) and Financial & Insurance firms (£215m). The smallest amounts claimed were from firms in Accommodation & Food (£5m), Real Estate (£10m), and Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning (£10m).
Information & Communications rank high on number of claims
Information & Communication firms made 11,635 claims over the period, the second highest behind Manufacturing. Professional, Scientific & Technical firms were also responsible for 9,545 claims. There were only 125 claims for the Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning sector, while there were just 215 claims by Real Estate firms.
Mining & Quarrying dominate high value claims
The Mining & Quarrying sector has by far the largest average claim amount, at £1.16bn. However, despite the extremely high value, there were only 95 claims over the course of the year in that sector.
Other high value sectors per average claim were Financial & Insurance firms (£232,400), while third on the list was Arts, Entertainment & Recreation (£157,900). Once again Accommodation & Food was the smallest sector regarding claims (£21,700), while another comparatively low value sector was Wholesale & Retail Trade, Repairs (£44,000).
Head of RIFT Research and Development Limited, Sarah Collins commented:
“It’s been interesting to see how the dynamics of the research and development landscape have changed, as more and more companies from a wide variety of sectors have started to utilise the scheme.
“Of course, a sector like manufacturing is likely to provide more regular opportunities to further develop the practices being used through R&D and so it’s no surprise that it leads the way for both the total amount claimed and the number of claims. However, when it comes to the value of the claim, it can very much be a case of quality over quantity, with some of the less prolific sectors for overall claims contributing with some of the highest values of R&D tax relief.”
