Policy paper

Additional tax reliefs for research and development (R&D) intensive small and medium-sized enterprises and potential merged R&D scheme

This measure is about additional tax relief for Research and Development (R&D) intensive small and medium-sized enterprises and a potential merged R&D scheme.

Documents

Draft legislation

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Explanatory note

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

The government has published draft legislation which will introduce a new permanent rate of relief for the most Research and Development (R&D) intensive, loss-making small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 1 April 2023.

This additional support will be worth over £1.8 billion over the next 5 years and will provide eligible R&D intensive loss-making SMEs with support worth £27 per £100 of R&D expenditure. The scheme would continue to operate alongside any merged scheme.

The government has also published draft legislation on the proposed design of a merged R&D scheme. A merger would be a significant opportunity for tax simplification, provide more clarity and certainty to SMEs, and help to drive innovation in the UK. The government has not yet taken a decision on whether to merge and intends to keep open the option of doing so from 2024.

Updates to this page

Published 18 July 2023

Sign up for emails or print this page