Number of claims falls but expenditure rises

The provisional estimated amount of total research and development (R&D) tax relief support claimed for the tax year 2022-23 was £7.5bn an increase of 1% from the previous year according to HMRC statistics. This corresponds to £46.7bn of R&D expenditure 4% higher than the previous year.

However HMRC reports that the amount of tax relief claimed through the small and medium-sized entities scheme fell by 3% compared with 2021-22 although the relief claimed through the R&D expenditure credit (RDEC) scheme increased by 7%.

The provisional estimated total number of R&D tax credit claims for 2022-23 was 65 690 a decrease of 21% from the previous year. The most notable impact was in the SME scheme where the volume of claims is 23% lower than the previous year. In comparison claims for the RDEC scheme fell by 9%.

There was...