R&D tax relief: recent developments

R&D tax relief was introduced in 2000 and over 8,000 companies now make claims each year. Following the Dyson report, the government has launched a consultation into the support R&D tax relief provides for innovation. The government has said it will ensure the schemes continue to be effective in encouraging innovation and its aim is to provide the most competitive corporate tax system in the G20. In order to do this, the relief should be available to all companies which carry out innovative activity, even if they are only able to allocate a small percentage of their budget to R&D activity.