One minute with Jenny Tragner is a Partner at S&W.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the major reforms to R&D tax reliefs are still keeping us busy. We’re a little way off the promised stability in R&D tax policy as we help our clients deal with the practicalities of such big changes.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
Tax is such a varied career; there are a huge variety of different roles that come under this label. Finding the right fit involves trying different things and grasping opportunities when they arise. If I could go back and give advice to my younger self, I’d definitely encourage more of this; it helps you identify what’s really important to you, which is ultimately essential for finding your place.
I’d also encourage younger me to learn all I could about imposter syndrome and psychological safety earlier, as these were concepts I came across later in my career and helped me to make sense of many experiences in my career journey.
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
In an ideal world, the simplification of R&D tax reliefs would have actually resulted in a single scheme, with rates differences to provide increased support for smaller R&D intensive businesses.
On a more practical level, if I had a magic wand, I would abolish the Claim Notification Form process and instead invest in a really effective advanced clearance system for R&D tax (I’m excited to see how the upcoming pilot goes!).
While the claim notification process is likely to have prevented some spurious R&D claims, the cost in terms of added complexity for businesses, advisers and HMRC, and the prevention of access to relief for genuine R&D is too high. The deadline for notifying is also in the wrong place, misaligned with normal tax compliance cycles, and I’m not clear on the value to HMRC of the data submitted.
What’s topical in your world?
Along with the wider tax industry, AI is a hot topic in R&D tax. HMRC are building AI tools to help with risk assessing R&D claims, and advisers are exploring how to incorporate it effectively into their services.
Everybody seems cautious. HMRC are worried that AI gives fraudsters a powerful tool to commit bad acts at scale, while also facing criticism for alleged unauthorised use of AI in compliance work. Similarly, advisers are balancing the potential for AI to speed up preparation of technical reports, while grappling with the dangers of creating confident-sounding project descriptions full of nonsense.
Has a recent change in HMRC practice affected your work?
HMRC have been publishing a steady stream of new R&D guidance in recent years, marking a step change in transparency and engagement. They are setting out their expectations for those claiming R&D tax relief much more clearly, which is a welcome development.
However, these expectations are now quite detailed, especially when it comes to the evidence HMRC expects to see to support an R&D claim. We still speak to businesses who underestimate the requirements and complexity, usually based on historic experience. If it has been a few years since you dealt with R&D tax relief, you’ll find the current process very different.
You might not know this about me but...
I have an insatiable appetite for corporate disaster stories, everything from Enron to Theranos to Uber. I love to learn about the psychology of how businesses work, and I think there is a lot to learn when they don’t!
One minute with Jenny Tragner is a Partner at S&W.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the major reforms to R&D tax reliefs are still keeping us busy. We’re a little way off the promised stability in R&D tax policy as we help our clients deal with the practicalities of such big changes.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
Tax is such a varied career; there are a huge variety of different roles that come under this label. Finding the right fit involves trying different things and grasping opportunities when they arise. If I could go back and give advice to my younger self, I’d definitely encourage more of this; it helps you identify what’s really important to you, which is ultimately essential for finding your place.
I’d also encourage younger me to learn all I could about imposter syndrome and psychological safety earlier, as these were concepts I came across later in my career and helped me to make sense of many experiences in my career journey.
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
In an ideal world, the simplification of R&D tax reliefs would have actually resulted in a single scheme, with rates differences to provide increased support for smaller R&D intensive businesses.
On a more practical level, if I had a magic wand, I would abolish the Claim Notification Form process and instead invest in a really effective advanced clearance system for R&D tax (I’m excited to see how the upcoming pilot goes!).
While the claim notification process is likely to have prevented some spurious R&D claims, the cost in terms of added complexity for businesses, advisers and HMRC, and the prevention of access to relief for genuine R&D is too high. The deadline for notifying is also in the wrong place, misaligned with normal tax compliance cycles, and I’m not clear on the value to HMRC of the data submitted.
What’s topical in your world?
Along with the wider tax industry, AI is a hot topic in R&D tax. HMRC are building AI tools to help with risk assessing R&D claims, and advisers are exploring how to incorporate it effectively into their services.
Everybody seems cautious. HMRC are worried that AI gives fraudsters a powerful tool to commit bad acts at scale, while also facing criticism for alleged unauthorised use of AI in compliance work. Similarly, advisers are balancing the potential for AI to speed up preparation of technical reports, while grappling with the dangers of creating confident-sounding project descriptions full of nonsense.
Has a recent change in HMRC practice affected your work?
HMRC have been publishing a steady stream of new R&D guidance in recent years, marking a step change in transparency and engagement. They are setting out their expectations for those claiming R&D tax relief much more clearly, which is a welcome development.
However, these expectations are now quite detailed, especially when it comes to the evidence HMRC expects to see to support an R&D claim. We still speak to businesses who underestimate the requirements and complexity, usually based on historic experience. If it has been a few years since you dealt with R&D tax relief, you’ll find the current process very different.
You might not know this about me but...
I have an insatiable appetite for corporate disaster stories, everything from Enron to Theranos to Uber. I love to learn about the psychology of how businesses work, and I think there is a lot to learn when they don’t!
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