Information on the Technical Narrative section about the Company & Industry Description
In the Company & Industry Description section, you’ll need to give a brief description of the history of the company including the following:
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What the company does
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Which industry does the company primarily operate in
- Authorised Officer(s)
- Competent Professionals
- Whether any of your company expenditure is a result of qualifying indirect activities ?
- Whether all of your qualifying expenditure related to R&D activity in the UK
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What was your company's total expenditure for this financial year
Guidance on the Company & Industry Description
Please write a short description of your company specialisation, the aims and objectives of your company
Example: Company A is a software development studio, specialised in developing imaging tools for the industry. The company aims to use innovative tools and techniques to extend the capabilities of the industry as a whole.
Who is the Authorised Officer
Each claim needs to be endorsed by a named senior officer of the company. This could be a CEO, CTO, CFO, director, founder or general manager. Add all names that apply.
Competent Professionals
Here, you need to include the details of the main technical staff involved with the project. Ideally these should be employees, but a subcontractor may be used. For example, if your project involves software development, please include the software developers involved in your R&D project.
Qualifying Indirect Activities
HMRC has listed a number of specific categories which indirectly support your R&D project, namely:
- scientific and technical information services, insofar as they are conducted for the purpose of R&D support (such as the preparation of the original report of R&D findings);
- indirect supporting activities such as maintenance, security, administration and clerical activities, and finance and personnel activities, insofar as undertaken for R&D;
- ancillary activities essential to the undertaking of R&D (e.g. taking on and paying staff, leasing laboratories and maintaining research and development equipment including computers used for R&D purposes);
- training required to directly support an R&D project;
- research by students and researchers carried out at universities;
- research (including related data collection) to devise new scientific or technological testing, survey, or sampling methods, where this research is not R&D in its own right; and
- feasibility studies to inform the strategic direction of a specific R&D activity.
If any of these apply for your project, please specify which of these were.
Qualifying expenditure in the UK.
Here you need to confirm whether all of your R&D qualifying expenditure was carried out in the UK or whether you had international subcontractors/externally provided workers.
Your company’s total expenditure
Your total spend is all your outgoings, which can be found in your profit and loss account. For indication, this would be the line in your P&L called "Total Administrative Costs".
Need more help? Any further questions on your R&D claim - please hit the chat button!