The firm, which has offices in Dundee, Forfar, Cupar and Glenrothes has secured over 360 claims for innovative companies who have undertaken problem-solving activities to adapt or create new processes or products, many of whom didn’t think they were eligible beforehand.

EQ complete around 70 claims each year, and their specialist team of seven have a 100% track record of success, with every claim submitted, benefitting the claimant company. Over the last nine years, they have secured £20m in tax savings for companies across Scotland in a large variety of sectors.

Recent claims have included £106,603 for a textiles company, £86,760 for a food and drink producer and £553,767 for an IT software company.

As many businesses struggle with their cash flow due to the impact of coronavirus, this type of potential cash injection is so important in assisting them to thrive again.

The dedicated R&D team at EQ have spent much of lockdown supporting their clients and moving swiftly to put through claims. Whilst working remotely, they have completed 17 claims worth over £1.4m and are currently processing another 16 to provide clients with that much-needed cashflow injection.

Rachel Bell, partner and member of the R&D team, commented: “In recent years, we’ve been helping an increasing number of clients secure significant tax savings, allowing them to invest in their business to drive future growth, or in recent cases, protect their staff and business from the impact of the ongoing pandemic.

“We still speak to many companies who don’t think they are eligible and are missing out on this vital cash flow injection. I urge anyone, particularly given the current circumstances, if they have conducted a project seeking to create, improve or adapt processes or products, they have a strong change of qualifying and we will be happy to discuss.”

One of the clients to benefit is Kettle Produce Ltd, a vegetable producer based in Fife who supply a wide range of products including a selection of prepared vegetables to national supermarkets.

Each year, the company undertake a variety of crop trials and develop their processes to increase yield, reduce waste, improve their products and extend the Scottish supply season. They also continually seek to expand their prepared product range, offering new innovative food products to their customers, testing a variety of new ingredients and processes, whilst ensuring high-quality end products are always produced.

Liz Waugh, finance director of Kettle Produce, added: “Our business is all about producing the best quality ingredients, ensuring consistency and developing suitable production processes on a large scale. There are many factors to consider and we undertake a lot of R&D to get the right end product. EQ have made R&D claims for us for a number of years and their support is invaluable. Due to the savings they have helped secure for us, we have been able to fund further innovation in the company.

“We just recently received the repayment for our most recent R&D claim. Rachel guided us through the claim process to ensure we were able to claim all of the reliefs we were entitled to. We thank Rachel and the EQ team for their continued support.”

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