£10m R&D tax savings secured for EQ clients

Dundee-based EQ Accountants have clawed back £10 million of Research and Development tax credits for clients.

The firm, which also has offices in Cupar, Forfar, and Glenrothes, has secured the milestone sum of credits which potentially apply to any individual or business developing or creating new products, innovations or processes.

Managed by a specialist team of six, EQ handle over 50 such claims each year, and have achieved over £10 million of tax savings for clients throughout Scotland during the last six years, including those working within food and drink, manufacturing, engineering, software development and design sectors.

The amount of claimants of R&D tax credits has rocketed in recent years but HMRC estimate that there remain many thousands of eligible businesses who still do not make a claim.

David Morrison, head of R&D Taxation Services at EQ said: “Despite much more awareness of R&D, some businesses remain nervous of claiming believing that HMRC might view this as aggressive tax planning. This is not the case, R&D is a claim to which eligible businesses are entitled and not tax planning with HMRC being supportive to properly considered claims. Furthermore, there remains a perception that R&D tax credits only apply to “men in white coats” but there are so many sectors where R&D claims are possible. In recent years EQ has made claims across many sectors including design, agriculture, food & drink, engineering, software and even dental implants. Businesses need to innovate to stay ahead and as long as you are a company seeking technological advances, you have a good chance to qualify.”

Mr Morrison continued: “I’m proud to have led a fantastic team which has delivered this level of benefit to our clients. These valuable tax savings have allowed our clients to invest that money into staff recruitment, infrastructure and has allowed a series of local businesses to enhance and expand their business.”

Amongst the clients to benefit, EQ have delivered successful R&D claims for Dundee-based SP Technology Limited for 8 years. The company has been designing, building and installing production and process automation systems for more than 30 years. Over that period the company has secured huge tax repayments, reflective of the highly innovative work they provide. For example, the company produced a solution to extract blood spots from salmon by using a laser dart to identify and suck out the blood leaving the salmon flesh unblemished. This had previously been an imprecise, manual process.

Roy Henderson, managing director Roy said: “The EQ R&D team’s expertise has delivered sizeable tax repayments over many years which has allowed the company to invest further in our workforce and its expertise thereby greatly contributing to the success of the business.”