Research and Development claim deadline

Do you have a March year-end? Are you planning to make an R&D claim? You may have a 30 September deadline to make a R&D claim notification, or the relief may be lost! 

This deadline has been created by a fairly new administrative requirement – the R&D claim notification. The R&D claim notification is a relatively painless online form (as HMRC forms go), that tells HMRC that a company is planning to make an R&D claim. For any period where a notification is needed but not made, a company will not be able to make an R&D claim – HMRC will deny the relief. 

Who needs to notify?

For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023, a claim notification may be needed. Short accounting periods aside, for most cases, the first period to be caught is the year ended 31 March 2024. 

A claim notification will be required if a company has not submitted an R&D claim before, or if the most recent claim was submitted more than 3 years before their notification deadline. The notification deadline is 6 months after the year-end. If your company has a long accounting period (more than 12 months), you may have an earlier notification deadline (please get in touch if you need to discuss this) 

The notification deadline for companies with a 31 March 2024 year-end is 30 September 2024. 

There is no requirement to make a claim if you notify 

You may have carried out qualifying R&D during the year but are unsure whether it is worthwhile making a claim. In this situation, we would still recommend that you make a R&D claim notification – it gives you more thinking time, and if you decide not to claim then that’s absolutely fine. 

Once a notification has been made, you have until two years after your accounting period end to make a claim. 

If you do not make a claim notification, but it was needed, then your company will have lost the opportunity to make a claim for that period. 

How to notify

The claim notification must be made through an online form. We are happy to complete this form for you as your agent, or it can also be completed by a representative of your company. It can be submitted using just an email address – it does not need to be done through a government gateway account. The form is available here. 

Remember, if a claim notification is needed but not made, the company’s ability to make an R&D claim will be LOST.  

If in doubt, we recommend making a notification, given that the process is not too onerous, and that it protects the company’s ability to claim. 

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss the notification requirement, if you need assistance with the notification form, or if you would like Kreston Reeves to complete a notification form on your behalf.