BIA Response to the HMT R&D tax reliefs consultation

The BIA has responded to the HM Treasury review of R&D tax reliefs.

In our response, we recommended:

  • Maintaining the current structure of the SME and RDEC regimes with the introduction of additional incentives for data, cloud computing and capital to encourage new investment aligned with government policy priorities.
  • Maintaining the alignment of the SME regime to the Life Sciences business model where essential aspects of R&D need to be contracted out.  
  • The inclusion of data and cloud hosting now seen as an increasingly essential input to R&D. 
  • The inclusion of capital expenditure in both regimes.
  • For R&D incentives to be better targeted to innovation in new products and services and restricted or eliminated for internal software platforms.
  • Actions to stem the proliferation of tenuous claims which divert potential support from genuine R&D by addressing agent behaviour, results-based fees and better quality standards for claims. 

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