Agriculture is an ever-evolving industry in the UK. Similarly to the food tech industry, agricultural businesses are constantly needing to adapt and innovate in order to keep up with changes in demand, as well as overcoming pre-existing issues within the trade.
The term Agri-Tech has been coined to describe the use of technology for farming which has been developed to improve efficiency and profitability. Many activities which a farmer may consider part of their day-to-day role may actually fall into this category.
Claims submitted under the R&D regimes stem from activity undertaken where the aim has been to achieve an advance in either science or technology through the development of new and/or significant improvement of products, devices, materials and systems where the activity has involved scientific or technology uncertainty.
There are a number of drivers for R&D within the agriculture and farming industry. These include, but are not limited to;
Costs including staff costs, testing on successful and unsuccessful projects and raw materials can all be used in an R&D claim. Catax can help you regain as much as 33% of your original costs to invest back into your business.
Case Study Example:
Tax benefit identified: £30,500
Sector: Agriculture
Our clients are a leading manufacturers and hirers of quality equipment to the agricultural market both in the UK and abroad. Their large hire business has given them the ideal platform to develop and then manufacture their own range of manure spreaders and trailers to suit the needs of one of the most demanding sectors of the industry. They constantly strive to improve their market position by appreciably improving and attempting new processes and developing innovative new solutions within their trade activity.
They wanted to enter the market for reversible board ploughs and recognised a gap in the market in terms of what was currently on offer and decided to develop a product that offered capability and functionality beyond anything that currently existed.
There was a large degree of technological uncertainty regarding this project as it was not known what mechanical, construction and design parameters would be required in order to provide a solution that was safe but also offered the increased functionality. The company recognised this technological uncertainty and made the decision to allocate time and resource in the pursuit of resolving the matter in order to advance their business proposition and the overall knowledge and capability in the field.
The company has had their prototype evaluated by the consumer and feedback has been extremely positive. In this regard, they believe they have taken significant steps towards achieving their aims.
With our ten years of experience, we were able to reliably identify what costs qualify and support this business in claiming back valuable tax relief for this innovative project. Catax pride ourselves on our in-house team of experts who have worked across hundreds of different industries and are the experts when it comes to helping clients claim their full tax entitlement.
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