Your trusted adviser for R&D Tax Credits, Creative Tax Relief, and R&D Grants
Your trusted adviser for R&D Tax Credits, Creative Tax Relief, and R&D Grants
When you spend a lot of time, effort and other resources on the research and development of a brand-new service or product, the last thing you want to do is pull the plug and abandon it. However, there are times when the best, or only sensible thing you can do is to bring those operations to a standstill.
How do you know when it’s time, though?
That’s what we’re going to look at in the following blog. We hope to help you understand even if your idea or concept, product or service is the most revolutionary thing ever, there are some reasons why you might want to discontinue it.
One of the most common reasons why you might want to cancel an R&D project is lack of finances. That is, if cost of the project has increased beyond your initial estimations. While it may seem as if progress is being made on the project and that the functionality of that process, product or service is improving with every re-take – when more money is required, and those completion goalposts keep getting pushed further away it may be worth deciding if it’s ever going to be ready in time to start making back all the money you invested into it.
It’s easy enough to make time for research and development for that ‘big new idea’. However, following on from the point above, there’s a point when you need to decide whether it’s worth continuing with something. If it’s going to take too long to get it to market, particularly when there is interest in that idea, it might be worth abandoning it. You don’t want to spend all that time refining and producing a wonderous thing no-one wants to buy.
Rather than a failed project being a major setback you need to bury your collective heads in the sand about, pulling the plug on a project can be a wise thing. However, it’s only a good thing if you learn from the mistakes that led to that in the first place. Often, more planning and foresight can help avoid costly mistakes before you make them.
It’s also worth keeping in mind any R&D tax credits you want to benefit from are applicable to failed projects and not just those that are successful. So, you can still claim money back on the work you’ve done.
Food and drink R&D (eligible under the R&D tax credit scheme) covers any project that aims to push the boundaries of knowledge and technology within the industry.
The government has published the Finance Bill 2023/24 covering the Merged Scheme and HMRC has recently provided more detail on the overseas restrictions and subcontracting rules and invited further consultation until 1st March 2024.
When the UK was still a member state of the EU, it was subject to European rules on state aid. Since Brexit, these rules have become more complex, navigating the murky waters of legislation across the English Channel.
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