Nearlyeight in tenof companies in Leeds could be eligible for Research and Development (R&D) tax relief on new products and services but less than a third of firms have ever claimed, tax relief specialists Catax have revealed.
Businesses in Leeds are missing out on millions of pounds even though 78 per cent of them have developed new products or business processes in the last two years, spending an average of £316,599 on these innovations, research shows*.
This means these companies are in line for valuable R&D tax relief that the government provides to encourage innovation.
But only 30 per cent of all Leeds firms report ever having claimed which means at least 62 per cent of eligible firms are missing out on the tax credits they deserve, the Catax study shows.
This is either because they don’t think they qualify, they incorrectly believe that it is expensive and time consuming, they ‘would not know where to start’ or they are unaware it existed.
A worrying 22 per cent of businesses in Leeds do not realise they can claim R&D tax relief if they develop a new product or service, according to the Censuswide survey.
Leeds executives believed the average value of an R&D tax relief claim in the first year to be just £14,357 when the true figure is more than triple that, at £49,000 for firms in all sectors nationwide. R&D doesn’t even have to have been successful to qualify and claims can be backdated at least two years**.
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Two thirds of eligible Leeds firms failing to claim R&D tax relief