Budget 2026: good news for R&D tax relief

Exciting news from budget 2026 for anyone working in the R&D tax relief field – the Claim Notification form (CNF) is being scrapped, and the Additional Information form (AIF) is being simplified!

The Budget documents state that the government plans to make ‘R&D tax reliefs easier to access by simplifying administration’. This comes after four years of disruption and changes to the scheme that, while aimed at making the scheme easier to use, have led to increased complexity and subsequent missed or invalid claims.

Since its introduction in 2023, the CNF has been incredibly unpopular. The rules around which companies had to submit the form are over-complicated and the purpose of the form unclear, leading to many companies missing out on relief to which they were entitled through a small administrative oversight.

The AIF has fewer problems with complexity, although any simplification of the process that will encourage more legitimate claimants is very welcome. HMRC have stated that the improvements will include ‘reducing unnecessary duplication, improving the information requested on contracting and on externally provided workers, and providing greater clarity on project information requirements and the Enhanced R&D Intensive Support intensity ratio.’

The scrapping of the CNF will apply to claims made after 1^st April 2027, and the changes to the AIF from autumn 2027. For now we’d advise all claimants and advisors to continue submitting CNFs as per the current rules, even if they expect to submit the claim after 1^st April 2027. We’ve seen several situations over the past few years in where the legislation differs from the announcement in terms of what time periods or accounting years the changes apply to, so anyone choosing not to submit a CNF in anticipation of this change might find themself unable to claim.

Overall, here at WhisperClaims we’re very happy that the government is taking steps to re-simplify the scheme after the turbulence of the past few year, and we look forward to seeing exactly how this is all enacted.

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