R&D Tax Relief Qualifying Costs

Fidel Limited – Fintech Loyalty Rewards Technology – saved £50k+

This was a complex development project that involved an extensive and expensive collaboration with Visa and Mastercard to connect to their data feed. The API needed to be compliant with the PCI framework – the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Evinox Energy Ltd – Heating Systems – Saved £140k+

There were several separate projects making up claims for R&D tax relief. One of these was the development of an improved heat interface unit. It was designed to be a combined boiler and tank, with connections to a wider system for heating multiple occupancy accommodation.

In its new design the company sought to improve the efficiency and unit cost of manufacture by introducing a new efficient pump, developing new (and less) control valves, as well as an intuitive ViewSmart Room Controller, that incorporated their own PaySmart pre-payment technology, to allow for centralised reporting and billing.

Teathers Financial Software Limited – Fintech Investment App – saved £79k

Teathers research and development work was based around innovative software development (Software as a Service – SaaS) and a new private investor experience concept.

The Teathers App is an execution-only platform. When an AIM-listed company raises money, “onboarded” users of the Teathers App have the opportunity to get involved.

Users are onboarded by downloading the iOS or Android app and completing an account application process. This sets up an execution-only brokerage account with Shard Capital.

The Source – Subterranean Skatepark – saved £26k

The skate park build was very complex and needed a great deal of scientifi c construction research before it could go ahead.

The site dates back to the 1800’s and had been derelict for approximately 18 years. It was originally a swimming pool that also had (and still does have) a full basement of water. The whole footprint of the building is part of a natural stream and water from the roads drain down into the space.

This creates a marine environment. Calculations were required for understanding how timber ramps would expand and contract with the humidity, for example.

Cosmarida Limited – Cosmetics Manufacturer – Saved £49k

Cosmarida work in an industry where formulation development is an ongoing R&D process. The skincare and toiletries products are constantly being refreshed with new fragrances and
active ingredients.

Despite working to a “brief” from their customer for most product developments, the company were able to qualify for the SME tax relief scheme because the brief was vague. Cosmarida had to experiment with different combinations of fragrances and ingredients to produce a number of samples and make multiple changes to get customer approval. Even then the R&D work isn’t finished.

Scaling up from a small 100ml pot to a 1,000 litre test batch and then a 10,000 litre first production batch, still represent significant challenges. As well as the product manufacturing, the company has also designed and built machines for unique packaging requirements.