As it’s now December I feel that I can start being Christmassy. Ho, ho ho!!! The chestnuts are roasting, the wine is mulling and the turkey is panicking. And the tax returns are coming in… Have you got yours done yet? There are only 36 1/2 shopping days to January 31st so don’t delay too long.
Also if you have a March company year end there may be tax to pay by the end of December (as well as the accounts to be filed at Companies House), personal tax and VAT at the end of February (and then a huge Christmas credit card bill in February). So how you you like a nice surprise by getting some of that tax back? Yes, if you were thinking ” what no R&D this week?”, here we go:
If you get a claim in by 31 March 2017 you can go back to your 2015 accounts* and get not only this years bill reduced but a repayment of the last one. How good is that? And no need to worry about whether you’ve been naughty or nice, the taxman just want you to have been innovative, solved problems and advanced knowledge. You don’t have to invent something amazing. Even (say) a new booking system for a travel website which works in a similar way to all the others but is built in a different way would qualify. You don’t even have to really invent something at all, an appreciable improvement to an existing product or process would also qualify.
Anyway that’s enough R&D for now, have a great weekend and don’t leave the tax too late.
Paul
*assuming you have a March year end as lots of companies do.