It’s been a strange year so far, but bizarrely the quarter to March was one of our busiest and yet although April and May are always a case of after the Lord Mayor’s show, April was pretty much dead, we only had two small claims that we slowly progressed. I think everyone else was in shock trying to work out how they were going to handle things. Were you? We usually fill our time in May with a couple of Exhibitions, but this year for obvious reasons we couldn’t even do that! What have you been doing instead?

I also had a major panic as I was running out of cash and this time last year, the claims that we submitted in March didn’t get paid out by HMRC until June and July, if that was going to be the case then I was probably done for! Thankfully, and to their credit, HMRC have managed to retain a 28 day turn around time for a majority of the claims that have been submitted through this Covid period.

I did investigate some CBILS funding, but I didn’t have the stomach for the initial 20% Director’s Personal Guarantee that was required. So, when the Bounce Back loans were announced, I was certainly getting my hands on one of those.

Despite this and having the option to furlough some of our small team it was something I wanted to avoid doing. Yes, we all had to work from home, and yes, I struggled with the concept of communicating with them without being face to face, but we soldiered on and found a new way of working and found some new clients along the way.

 

R&D Tax Relief is important now more than ever

A number of interesting prospects we had been talking to before lockdown that we hoped to be working with either pulled back completely from the idea of claiming or decided to take the claim in house. I can understand the latter, it might have kept someone from being furloughed, but not the former, but even taking the claim in house for a company that hasn’t prepared a claim before or even for a while, could significantly affect its value. It’s one of those situations where working with an expert, would almost pay for itself with an enhanced claim. As I say, to not claim for R&D Tax Relief, where there is a clear case for it, especially now, is just plain crazy!

It’s not a magic money tree, but it’s the next best thing for companies that are innovating in the Food and Beverage industry, in any industry, to be honest.

How’s your cashflow been? Are you exhausting your initial funding and wondering where the next pot of money is coming from as your sales recover? Or have you had a bumper period during Covid as the British public couldn’t contain their buying frenzy?

Whatever the situation has been, we could all do with a little bit more cash at this time! If you’ve been doing something interesting with Science or Technology in your business. Developing a new product, reducing waste or energy usage, looking at manufacturing improvements or designing some new machinery or packaging, are but a few of the many qualifying activities.

 

Find out if you are eligible in just fifteen minutes

If you have doing anything, you really ought to take us up on our Find Out In Fifteen phone calls. We can have a quick chat about your business, you can tell me what you’ve been doing, I’ll ask you a few questions and probably there will be some good news at the end of it. You don’t have to work with us, but hopefully you’ll be happy to.

Arrange your call now at https://calendly.com/cooden/discovery-website

Let us help you get some more cash in your business.