Merseyside firms ‘missing out’ on millions of pounds in R&D tax credits
Latest figures reveal that of the 22,445 claims across the UK totalling £2.45bn in tax benefits, only 2,200 claims came from companies in the North West and resulted in just £130m back. Tony McDonough reports.
Liverpool city region firms are missing out on millions of pounds in research & development (R&D) tax credits, an expert claims.
Latest figures reveal that of the 22,445 claims across the UK totalling £2.45bn in tax benefits, only 2,200 claims came from companies in the North West and resulted in just £130m back.
Firms in the region accounted for just 9.9% of total claims and a mere 5.9% of the total tax benefits claimed.
This is despite an an increase of 37% year-on-year in the total R&D tax credits claimed in 2014-2015.
The figures were compiled by R&D tax relief specialist Jumpstart using the latest data from HMRC.
Russell McGrath, client engagement manager for Jumpstart in the North West, said: “While it’s encouraging to see many local companies availing of the R&D Tax Credits scheme, these latest HMRC figures are an alarming demonstration of just how much companies from the region are losing out in terms of tax savings compared to companies throughout the rest of the UK.”
Of the 2,200 claims locally, 1,865 were from the SME R&D Scheme and the remainder were claimed under schemes for large companies.
London and the South East of England made the highest number of claims in the year.
While London companies accounted for 19.1% of all claims and 32.7% of the total tax relief claimed, the South East of England accounted for 17.9% of claims and 18.5% of the total claimed.
The figures show the highest number of claims across the UK came from the manufacturing, professional, scientific & technical and information & communication sectors.
Mr McGrath added: “While uptake of the UK government’s R&D tax relief scheme is increasing across the UK as a whole and is very healthy in certain regions, companies from the Liverpool city region and wider North West area are clearly not reaping the full benefits of the scheme.”