Research and development (R&D) tax relief must be claimed within two years from the end of your accounting period.
To put into context, if your year end is 31 March 2022, then your R&D tax claim must be submitted to HMRC by 31 March 2024.
6 to 18 month accounting periods
When a company is registered with Companies House, the accounting period is 12 months from that incorporation date. As this date is usually in the middle of a month, it is not seen as a practical date for a year end. Companies therefore change their accounting periods.
Accounting periods can therefore range between 6 to 18 month periods.
Regardless of the length of your accounting period, the deadline of two years from the end of each accounting period still applies.
Tactical Changes
Companies may change their accounting periods to benefit from the R&D tax scheme.
Companies can shorten their accounting periods to claim R&D tax sooner or to make a claim before changes in legislation.
Extending the Deadline
Under rare circumstances, HMRC may allow an extension of the two year time period where the deadline could not be met for reasons outside of the company’s control.
Two examples given are:
- at the date of the expiry of the time limit, the company or its agents were unaware of profits against which the company could claim relief
- the amount of a profit or loss depended on discussions with an inspector which were not complete when the time limit expired, and the delay in agreeing figures is not substantially the fault of the company or its agents
