HMRC R&D tax claim – Additional Information Form

One of the essential documents that is needed for an R&D claim is the Technical Report, which explains to HMRC the background and R&D related to the projects a company carries out. Traditionally this has been a word or pdf document attached to the accounts and has+ not been compulsory but has been recommended. In December 2022 HMRC demonstrated their compulsory ‘G-FORM’ which is the portal that all future R&D reports would all be submitted through from the 1st April 2024.  At the budget delivered 15th March by Jeremy Hunt and associated documents that have been issued, announced the fact that this form will become mandatory for all submission of R&D tax credit claims on or after 1st August 2023. 

This is a change of what has been previously announced, as prior to the budget this form was expected to become mandatory on or after 1 April 2024. This portal form would be supplementary information to the CT600, tax computation and CT600L, which would all still be required 

Why is this important? 

Companies need to be aware that if they are intending in submitting an R&D claim with their accounts after 1st August, regardless of when your accounting period ends, then it would be worth considering doing this before the 1st August.  There are a number of reasons for doing this: 

• The new Additional Information Form asks for project costs by project. This is a higher level of detail than you might have been expecting to have available or calculated already.  
• As the Additional Information Form is a website portal then the technical report is likely to be prepared offline in word and then would need to be copied across section by section, which is an additional time consuming step in the process.  
• The new portal from HMRC does not handle images, which can be invaluable in explaining the complexity of an R&D project. Submitting before 1st August means you would prepare a word/pdf report for submission with images included. After 1st August you can still submit a pdf report as an attachment to the accounts which could include images but there is guarantee that HMRC will look at the pdf report.  

If you have any questions about this change of process or the implications on your company then please get in contact.