If so, STOP & THINK before you respond or agree to a meeting!
The HMRC inspectors know their stuff, and will send you considered, polite questions seeking “clarification”. Be under no illusion that this is a “good cop, bad cop” approach, and although your answers may help the claim get accepted, they can also be used to decide between a slap on the wrist for “careless” mistakes or a fine for “deliberate” errors…
If you have used an adviser to put your claim together, don’t let them respond unless you understand and are completely happy with their response. Remember that at the end of the day this is your company and you (the directors) are ultimately answerable to HMRC!
How can we help?
We can review your claim and the initial responses from HMRC.
We will give you an honest opinion – if we think your claim isn’t valid we will tell you so, but often it comes down to framing your responses to properly emphasise what your R&D project was really about.
We won’t charge you for this, although we’d be happy to discuss handling your future claims for you! Get in touch at info@woco.uk.