The R&D tax credit claims process doesn’t have to be stressful and time-consuming with Ayming on your side.
In this article, find out more about R&D tax credit processing time, including how long it can take for SMEs and large companies to receive tax relief following the submission of a claim. Plus, discover how Ayming’s Rapid Claims process can help save your business time and money.
How long it takes to process an R&D tax credit claim
The HMRC expects to process R&D tax credit payments to you within 28 days of your SME claim being submitted. However, please note that this does not include the additional 10 days it may take for the funds to reach your bank account once your claim has been approved.
In total, it takes approximately 35 days from the time you submit your claim until you receive your R&D tax credit.
However in the last year or so, HMRC has increased its compliance activity around R&D tax credits, and this has delayed payment processing times. Currently HMRC aims to process payments in 40 days, but it is not achieving this target consistently and some claims are taking longer.
Processing and repayment time for SMEs
Corporation Tax refunds typically take less time to process than R&D tax credit payments. This is because they can be issued automatically, without the need for an HMRC inspector to intervene.
However, if there are any complexities to the payment, such as losses being carried back, the claim may require manual intervention, which can impact the processing time for R&D tax credit payments.
Additionally, the speed at which HMRC processes your R&D claim may be affected by seasonal availability and internal workloads. During peak periods, such as company year-ends in March, September, and December, payments may take longer due to the high volume of claims being processed.
Processing and repayment time for large companies
Large companies may also experience delays in the processing of their RDEC claims. This is often because these claims are part of a more complex Corporation Tax return. Additionally, if a large company has other specialised areas, such as transfer pricing, that need to be taken into account, this can further prolong the process.
The exact processing time will depend on the company’s specific tax situation and its relationship with the HMRC.
We’ll help you streamline R&D tax credit process
Here at Ayming, we’ll support you in identifying all qualifying research and development expenditures and help you compile your claim ready for you to submit to HMRC. What’s more, we also work closely with HMRC to make sure that your claim makes its way through the R&D tax credit process as quickly as possible.
Discover Ayming’s Rapid Claims process
We know your time is precious, that’s why we offer a Rapid Claims service. Rapid Claims is a fast-tracked R&D claims service for SMEs. We’ll arrange online interviews with key staff members, gain a solid understanding of your business and its processes, review all your financial data, and then compile a robust, comprehensive R&D tax claim for you to submit. All in under 1 week!