The taxation of R&D in the UK

The March 2010 Dyson Review made a number of recommendations for changes to tax legislation to encourage investment in high-tech companies, including suggesting changes to the EIS and R&D tax credits reliefs; simplifications to the process for making R&D claims, and the continuing development of the patent box regime. The government has made significant strides towards the implementation of some of these recommendations, but has fallen short of full implementation – particularly the lack of focus of the EIS and R&D regimes on small high-tech companies and the failure to simplify administrative procedures. It remains to be seen whether the existing measures will be sufficient to propel the UK towards the goal of being the leading high-tech exporter in Europe.