How to tell if your project qualifies for R&D tax relief
Are your teams capturing the technical problem-solving process, or only the final results?
If you’re asking, “Does this qualify?” you’re already halfway there.
A simple three-step filter can help:
1. Was there a technological objective?
Not a commercial objective, a technical one.
Were you trying to improve capability, performance, reliability, or efficiency in a way that required technical advancement?
2. Was there uncertainty?
Could a competent professional readily work out how to achieve it using existing knowledge?
If not, and experimentation was required, that’s key.
3. Was the approach systematic?
Did the team:
- test options?
- analyse failures?
- iterate designs?
- refine methodology?
R&D is rarely accidental.
It involves structured problem-solving.
If you can clearly answer yes to all three, the project is worth exploring further.
Pause for thought
Are your teams documenting technical problem-solving, or only recording final outcomes?
Eligibility often depends on the journey, not just the destination.
