Scott Henderson, CEO of ABGI UK

The latest 2018-19 figures show Scottish companies made a total of 2,925 claims, up from 2,210 made at this time last year. There were 2,405 successful R&D tax relief claims made by SMEs in Scotland as well as additional claims secured through the RDEC scheme. This amounted to a total of £235m in R&D tax relief being secured by businesses across the nation.

Overall there were 59,265 R&D tax credit claims made across the UK in the 2018-19 period with Scottish-based companies securing 4% of the £5.3 billion of tax relief support that was claimed nationwide. This measure helped stimulate more than £35bn of R&D expenditure by British businesses.

Scottish companies also secured £25m in rebates for Patent Box claims, another tax relief incentive available to help firms develop intellectual property (IP) assets. Overall, companies across the UK secured a total of £992m in Patent Box tax breaks in 2018-19.

This year’s R&D tax credit statistics show manufacturing companies along with those in ‘Professional, Scientific and Technical’, and ‘Information and Communication’ sectors continuing to have the greatest volume of claims. The three categories account for a combined total of 66% of claims and 71% of the total amount claimed in 2018-19.

Scott Henderson, CEO of ABGI UK, said: “Scotland has seen a steady rise in R&D tax relief claims compared to the HMRC figures released last year. While we are now facing some serious economic challenges this ongoing trend is welcome as it shows the Scottish business community has continued to invest in innovation at a time when this will be more critical than ever.

“The R&D tax credit scheme has a proven track record in delivering success, driving forward innovation and helping develop more world-class companies across the UK. Going forward we will continue to work with businesses across the parts of the UK to insure they are securing maximum benefit when they invest in research and development.”

Since the launch of R&D tax credit schemes in 2000, over 300,000 claims have been made and £33.3bn in tax relief claimed.