Fraudulent R&D tax credit claims lead to long processing times

HMRC has provided further information on the pause in some research and development (R&D) tax credit payments that occurred in April this year and the continuing delays in their usual processing times.

In a note to the Chartered Institute of Taxation HMRC said: ‘Since April we have faced an increase of fraud within the R&D tax credit relief. While some of this fraud is opportunistic some is linked to organised criminal gangs. As you would expect HMRC responded quickly by pausing all payments and by strengthening our systems accordingly.’

The department added that its response culminated in further risk assurance checks and has already issued more than 1 000 letters to claimants which have been identified as high risk.

These extra checks together with the fact that HMRC has received more than 8 000 R&D tax credit claims since 1 April 2022...