What evidence is required to make an R&D tax credit claim?

HMRC does not specify which pieces of evidence are required to make an R&D tax credit claim; however, including evidence in your claim will help to ensure your claim is accepted without any enquiries. Which evidence you include will depend on the cost types that you are claiming for. Below, we’ve included the most common forms of evidence submitted alongside each of the most common cost types.

Exactly which type of evidence you will need to include will depend on the nature of your business, R&D projects and industry, so do speak to an advisor to understand what is most suitable for your claim.

Staffing costs
– PAYE records
– Records of pension payments
– R&D staff’s timesheets (for those not full-time on the project)
– Contracts of employment for R&D staff

Externally provided workers
– Documentary evidence of the contract or arrangement with the staff provider
– Copy of invoices received
– Evidence of payments e.g. bank records
– Details of the activities carried out and any evidence of active supervision by the company

Subcontract costs
– Invoices from subcontractors
– Evidence of the nature of the work subcontracted and the terms applicable
– Evidence of payments

Software
– Receipts or contracts for software purchased, licensed or commissioned
– A copy of product/marketing literature for the software
– Any evidence of charges back to the

R&D Consumables
– Receipts for purchased items
– Procedural maps or process documents describing their usage
– Usage indicators such as unitised electricity bills

For a useful introduction to effective record-keeping, head over to The Balance.

At EmpowerRD, we combine the expertise of ex-HMRC inspectors alongside an intelligent online platform to ensure your claim is successful, receives the greatest amount of credit and is done in the fastest time possible.

One of the advantages of using EmpowerRD for your R&D claim is that our platform acts on a robust claim methodology so that we can submit claims without the need for any additional supporting evidence. This greatly speeds up the process of submitting a claim, as compiling evidence against each cost type can be a time-consuming process.

Typically, our clients create and submit their R&D claims within a week of engaging with us. Some clients have been able to do the whole process in less than a day. This compares favourably with the traditional advisor process, which typically takes a period of months.