Q: The taxman is asking me to return R&D tax credit cash that I don’t have. What can I do?
A: It may not be much comfort, but your business will not be the only one in this position. HMRC is waking up to the fact that it has paid out on many incorrect R&D claims in the past: prior to the 2022-23 tax year it only checked a tiny proportion of claims (about 1 per cent we understand) before tax credits were paid out.
According to HMRC research, up to £1.13 billion of R&D claims paid for 2020-21 were incorrect as the result of “error or fraud”. Following this estimate, both the National Audit Office and parliament’s public accounts committee have urged HMRC to
