Great news for R&D from Budget 2020

Yesterday’s budget was good news all-round for companies undertaking R&D! Not only has the RDEC rate been increased, but the looming PAYE cap on the payable SME tax credit has been delayed until April 2021, much to the relief of many small companies that rely on subcontractors to carry out their R&D.

The big R&D related announcement was the increase in RDEC. This means that large companies and SMEs with grants or other subsidised expenditure will now receive a benefit of just over 10.5% of their eligible spend on R&D, receiving £105.30 for every £1000 spent. This had been widely reported ahead of the budget, and will be welcomed by all RDEC claimants.

However, hidden in the detail of the budget was a more significant point for many SME claimants – the changes announced in budget 2018 that were expected to come into force in April 2020 have been delayed until April 2021. The proposed changes would have restricted the cash credit payable to three times a company’s NIC and PAYE liabilities for the year. For small, loss-making start-ups that often rely on subcontractors rather than paying salaries this would have been a major blow, so we welcome the delay and potential redesign of the cap.

Other than these points, the increase in employment allowance to £4000, coupled with recent changes that we detailed here will mean that SME claimants will be up to £130 better off.

Lastly, the government pledged to increase public investment in R&D to £22bn a year by 2025. While the specifics of how this will be spent are yet to be fully revealed, it’s great to see more money going into innovative work and research in the UK.