Disparities in R&D tax relief changes a concern for businesses says RSM UK
New draft legislation to change the R&D tax relief regime will create a vacuum of inequalities for businesses seeking relief according to leading audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK.
The changes will come into effect for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023. This will create marked inconsistencies between businesses that report on their accounts over different time periods, allowing some, but not all businesses to claim certain reliefs up until that time, says RSM.
Take, for example, ‘Company A’ (see infographic), a company with a December year end. The proposed changes will first have an impact in their accounting period beginning on 1 January 2024. In contrast, their competitor, ‘Company B’, has a March year end. For Company B, the changes will have an immediate impact on 1 April 2023. The difference means that Company A will be able to claim for certain overseas costs (i.e. those that will no longer be eligible in the future, as a result of the changes in the draft legislation) for nine months longer than Company B (from 1 April to 31 December 2023). This is because of the definition being ‘for periods beginning on or after’ the effective date.
Company B, however, will be at an advantage over Company A because from 1 April it is able to claim for health and social care levy; and cloud computing and data costs. Company A, on the other hand, will need to wait until 1 January 2024 to start claiming these costs.
James Tetley, partner and national head of innovation reliefs at RSM UK comments: ‘At best, HMRC’s proposed legislative changes appear rigid in their approach. And inevitably there will be winners and losers, should these draft changes come into effect. Legislators usually seek to deal with these issues by splitting accounting periods that straddle the implementation date into two notional accounting periods – one falling before the effective date, and one after. This enables all companies to operate on an equal footing, claiming (or omitting) costs up to the implementation date, and making the change for the notional period falling after that date. We have raised this with HMRC, and currently there does not appear to be an intention to amend the draft legislation. We will wait to see whether this remains the case.’
In the meantime, businesses should be considering the April 2023 changes that will positively and negatively affect them. If there is a strong impact either way, then some management teams may be tempted to reconsider their financial year-end date, with the aim of either capturing costs that will be lost in the future, or accelerating the ability to claim newly eligible costs. Any decision in this regard would be subject to consideration of the wider commercial, accounting and financial implications.
