Budget provides R&D tax relief stability

As the leaves began to change colour the build-up to this year’s autumn Budget remained relentlessly monotone – and the mood was dark. With tax hikes trailed in the press on an almost daily basis many businesses tuned in to the chancellor’s Budget speech with a degree of trepidation.

This was certainly the case for research and development (R&D) tax advisers who have been on something of a rollercoaster in recent times particularly when compared to the two decades of relative calm which followed the introduction of R&D tax incentives in 2000. Not many fiscal events have passed in the last three years without significant announcements on the government’s flagship innovation policy R&D tax relief. Compared with Jeremy Hunt’s rate ‘rebalancing’ in 2022 or Rishi Sunak’s reforms in the spring statement the same year Rachel Reeves resisted the urge to pull any rabbits out...