EmpowerRD gets ready for the National Technology Awards 2026
Ross Taylor
April 16, 2026
The R&D Scheme
BOOK A MEETING
An agile platform to adapt to changing regulations. A team of R&D tax claim and sector specialist: ex-HMRC, ATT qualified, AML trained, AML registered and supervised by HMRC.
Book a Meeting
The EmpowerRD Blog
Insights and ideas to enrich your innovation, navigate the complex funding landscape, and enhance the quality of your R&D tax credit claims.
The Government Is Betting £500m on British AI. Your R&D Tax Claim Needs to Be Ready for What Comes Next.
The UK government just announced a £500 million Sovereign AI Unit — a state-backed investment vehicle designed to keep British AI companies on home soil and push them to global scale. It’s a significant policy moment. And for CFOs and Financial Controllers at innovative UK companies, it raises a question that nobody in a government press release is asking: when the government doubles down on AI investment, what does HMRC do next? The answer matters more than the headline. ...
HMRC R&D Tax Update: Spring 2026 RDCF Insights
Ross Taylor
March 11, 2026
Recent R&D tax relief scheme changes require understanding to ensure future claims are successful.
Latest posts
What the Autumn Budget 2025 Means for UK Innovation
Stuart Millar
November 27, 2025
Autumn Budget 2025 has already been labelled a “smorgasbord of misery.” The headlines are dominated by household pressures: £26bn in tax rises, frozen thresholds pulling
Autumn Budget 2025: Turning fiscal restraint into growth
Alex Hannaway
November 18, 2025
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has framed this year’s Autumn Budget as one of “necessary choices.” Public finances are tight and tax rises elsewhere are likely, but
R&D tax relief statistics 2025: claims fall 26% while innovation spend holds steady
Stuart Millar
September 30, 2025
HMRC’s latest R&D tax credit statistics for 2025 reveal a mixed picture. The total number of claims has dropped sharply, yet UK businesses are still
How much should UK scale-ups invest in R&D: guidance for CFOs and founders
Alex Hannaway
September 24, 2025
Investment benchmarks: £1.46 million and 12% intensity Interested in seeing how your businesses R&D budget compares? According to our UK Innovation Report 2025, medium-to-large companies
Elsbury v The Information Commissioner: Tribunal Orders HMRC to Reveal Its Use of AI
Stuart Millar
September 22, 2025
A landmark tribunal ruling In early August the First‑tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) handed down a judgment in Elsbury v The Information Commissioner [2025] UKFTT
Investor insight: Why 92% say R&D is vital to growth
Alex Hannaway
September 18, 2025
R&D is no longer a back-office function. For UK startups and scale-ups, it is the frontline of growth, and investors know it. According to our