HMRC publishes new R&D claim statistics

HMRC has published R&D claim statistics for the tax year 2021/2022, covering data on the number of companies claiming R&D tax credits, the top industries making claims, and first-time claims, etc. and we have summarised the key points in our blog. It’s important to note that claims for that year can still be submitted after the cut-off date for this HMRC publication. Therefore, the statistics provided are considered ‘provisional’ and have been adjusted to account for claims that have not yet been received.

Key points from the HMRC R&D claim statistics

• The estimated amount of £ claimed was £7.6 billion, an increase of 11% from the previous year. (£4.8 SME, £2.8bn RDEC).
• This corresponds to £44.1 billion of R&D expenditure, 8% higher than the previous year.
• The provisional estimated total number of claims was 90,315, an increase of 5% from the previous year. The increase is driven by a rise in claims across both the SME and RDEC schemes
• The average claim (across SME and RDEC) for 21/22 is £84,150 –  a 6% increase on last year. This is driven by an average increase of 9% in the SME scheme and could be due to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have prevented some companies from carrying out their normal levels of R&D activity in the tax year 2020 to 2021.
• There is a concentration of claims by companies with registered offices in London (22% of total claims and 32% of total amount claimed), and the South-East (15% of total claims and 18% of total amount claimed). However, the registered office location may not be where all the R&D activity takes place.
• Again – as usual – the Information & Communication, Manufacturing, and Professional, Scientific & Technical sectors continued to have the greatest volume of claims, making up 62% of total claims and 67% of the total amount claimed for the tax year 2021 to 2022.
• The number of first-time SME scheme claimants continues to decrease (having peaked in 2018/19). However – the number of first-time applicants for the RDEC scheme was 2,705 for the tax year 2020 to 2021 – a 14% increase from the previous year. First-time applicant growth for RDEC has been consistently high in recent years.
• Northern Ireland saw a small drop in the number of SME claims (3%) but a significant increase in RDEC claims (60%) – from 75 in 2020/21 to 120 in 2021/22.

If you have any questions relating to R&D tax relief or wish to discuss these statistics, please get in touch with VISIATIV, and a representative will get back to you to discuss your unique needs and explain how we can assist.