The R&D Additional Information Form

Starting from 8th August 2023, it is mandatory to complete and submit an additional information form to HMRC in support of all Research and Development (R&D) tax relief or expenditure credit claims. Failing to do so will result in the removal of your R&D tax relief claim from your Company Tax Return, and HMRC will notify you accordingly. 

To ensure compliance, you must submit the additional information form before including an R&D figure within your company's Corporation Tax Return. The following parties are eligible to complete the additional information form:

1. Representatives of the company
2. Agents acting on behalf of the company

When filling out the form, you will need the following details:

Company Details:

• Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), matching the one shown in your Company Tax Return
• Employer PAYE reference number
• VAT registration number
• Business type, such as your current SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code

Contact Details:

• Contact information of the main senior internal R&D contact in the company responsible for the R&D claim (e.g., a company director)
• Contact information of any agent involved in the R&D claim

Accounting Period Start and End Date:

• Provide the start and end dates of the accounting period for which you are claiming tax relief. This should match the dates shown in your Company Tax Return.

Qualifying Expenditure Details:

• Include comprehensive details of the qualifying expenditure.
• Depending on your eligibility, you can claim tax relief as a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) or Research and Development expenditure credit (RDEC) as a large company or SME.
• Specify the types of expenditure you are claiming for, such as cloud computing costs, consumable items, data license costs, externally provided workers, payments to clinical trial participants, software, staff, and subcontractor costs.
• Note that certain items may have specific requirements, such as cloud computing costs and data license costs with effective dates starting on or after 1 April 2023.

Qualifying Indirect Activities:

Include the amount of qualifying expenditure for each project involving qualifying indirect activities that do not directly lead to resolving uncertainties. 

This may include:

• creating information services for R&D support such as preparing a report of R&D findings
• direct supporting activities such as maintenance, security, administration and clerical activities and finance and personnel activities, for the share that relates to R&D
• ancillary activities needed to begin R&D, for example taking on and paying staff, leasing laboratories and maintaining R&D equipment, including computers used for R&D purposes
• training required to directly support the R&D project
• research by students and researchers carried out at universities
• research including data collection to make new scientific or technological testing, surveys or sampling methods, where this research is not R&D in its own right

Project Details:

Specify the number of projects you are claiming for in the accounting period and provide details for each project. The level of detail required depends on the number of projects being claimed.

• For 1 to 3 projects, describe all the projects and ensure they cover 100% of the qualifying expenditure.
• For 4 to 10 projects, describe projects accounting for at least 50% of the total expenditure, with a minimum of 3 projects described.
• For 11 to 100 (or more) projects, describe projects accounting for at least 50% of the total expenditure, with a minimum of 3 projects described. If there are multiple smaller projects, provide details for the 10 largest ones.

A description for each of the projects:

Finally, you need to provide a detailed description for each project, including the main field of science or technology, the baseline level of science or technology the company aimed to advance, the scientific or technological knowledge that the company aimed to achieve, the scientific or technological uncertainties faced, and how the project sought to overcome those uncertainties.

By providing thorough and accurate information in the additional information form, you will ensure a smooth process for your R&D tax relief or expenditure credit claims.