Jamie Watts, commercial director of Amplifi Solutions, said: “It is an interesting time for our client portfolio, which includes multiple knowledge intensive companies who are enhancing their valuations by carrying out high level R&D.”

Amplifi has also strengthened its executive advisory team with two key appointments: Patricia Harvey and Andrew Blackstock. Ms Harvey, who brings over two decades of senior tax experience including senior roles at BDO and Baker Tilly, specialises in tax incentives, including the R&D Tax Credit scheme. Andrew Blackstock, a construction industry expert with a background in engineering research, will lead the technical writing team and joins from ABGI.

Mr Watts added: “Both appointments enable us to further grow our entrepreneurial tax offering, and service a wider range of innovative companies.”

The most recent HMRC statistics, for the year 2019/20, revealed that Scottish businesses received around £330 million in R&D tax credits, up by 40 per cent from the previous year. While this is good news, Amplifi observes that recently proposed changes to qualifying expenditure, including the potential inclusion of data and cloud computing costs, will help to significantly increase the overall value available to innovators.

Mr Watts commented: “When you look at technology-focused companies in particular, including Scottish-based startups and scale-ups, that’s where we expect to see the greatest benefit.”

Amplifi’s view is that the impact of upcoming legislative changes, including an increase in corporation tax from 19% to 25% for more profitable companies, could be partially mitigated by making better use of tax incentives, while the team additionally notes that increased cash flow pressure on tech companies is a worrying trend in the market.

Mr Watts added: “More than ever, cash is king in 2022, and we’re finding that there are cash runway concerns for early-stage businesses as investors become more prudent following the decline in valuations in the tech sector. It has never been so important to ensure that you are able to forecast dips in cash flow and that companies use all the tools available to them to navigate these challenges.”