Yesterday HMRC released the latest statistics for the usage of the R&D tax relief and Patent Box schemes. Here’s an initial view of this year’s numbers.

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In July 2023, I was honoured to be invited to the LMB-VBC Graduate Life Sciences symposium at the University of Cambridge, specifically to be a panellist on the Lab Grown Meat discussion. It was great to represent GovGrant and bring the commercial IP angle to the debate.

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In the past accountants might have been comfortable dealing with the financial aspects of an R&D tax relief claim, but may have felt less qualified to assess the technical or scientific aspects of their clients’ claims.
Many accountants I have spoken to recently have left this aspect entirely to their clients, believing them to be the experts in their field. But now that HMRC’s rate of enquiry is increasing they find that the client can’t answer HMRC’s technical questions, and neither can they.

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The latest statistics showing the value of R&D tax relief and Patent Box were published by HMRC today. What does an initial look at this year’s numbers tell us?
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Businesses shouldn’t be intimidated by the legal and academic jargon surrounding Intellectual Property (IP). Here at GovGrant we are changing the conversation and provide a range of IP services and assets that can help you cut through the noise.
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The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, presented his Autumn Budget and Spending Review to Parliament on Wednesday 27 October 2021. There were very few surprises when it comes to R&D, innovation, and Patent Box tax relief. Many of the announcements were made against the context of the recent R&D consultation, see our response here.
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The latest statistics showing the value of R&D tax relief and Patent Box were published by HMRC yesterday. What does an initial look at this year’s numbers tell us?
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At the end of July, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) announced that a strong intellectual property system will be key as the UK aims to be a global leader in innovation. It is clear that the UK is facing some major challenges; net-zero, the levelling up agenda, global trade ambitions and, not least, economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
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A recent report by David Connell, Senior Research Associate, Centre for Business Research Cambridge Judge Business School, seeks to reappraise the objectives of the R&D tax credit and Patent Box schemes.
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It’s World Intellectual Property Day, a day to celebrate and educate the world about the role that intellectual property (IP) rights play in encouraging innovation and how, when employed successfully, an idea can become an IP asset to create business value and drive sustainable economic growth.
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In case you missed it, last week the European Patent Office (EPO) released its European Patent Index (EPI) for 2020 which saw the number of European patent applications filed at the EPO drop by 0.7% compared to 2019. If you would like to know more about what the European Patent Index is and why it is significant, please see my earlier blog post here. This is the last in a two part series that will dissect the data released in this year’s EPI and what it may reveal for the state of innovation for certain sectors within Europe.
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This week the European Patent Office (EPO) has released its much-anticipated European Patent Index (EPI) for 2020.
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Over 2020, through the Covid crisis, we at GovGrant helped almost one thousand innovative UK companies, and over hundred investors, achieve value and investment returns from innovation. This led to over £45mn of timely capital flow, helping companies sustain their business in difficult times.
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Brexit? Is that still happening? Well yes, fortunately, or unfortunately (depending on which side of the fence you are on), and, consequently, there are changes to how certain aspects of the Intellectual Property (IP) system will operate in the UK on or after 1 January 2021. Here is your one-stop-shop for all things Brexit and IP post the end of the transition period:
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For the first time ever, HMRC have independently reviewed the Patent Box scheme to understand if it is an effective tool in the government R&D agenda or if it needs to scraped.
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Now that I have had some time to digest the recent update from HMRC in respect of the R&D tax credits and Patent Box statistics, there are three things that have stood out for me:
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The latest Research and Development Tax Credits and Patent Box statistics have been released today by HMRC. It’s encouraging to see a year-on-year increase in claims for R&D tax relief but once again, the growth in Patent Box is woefully behind. More businesses are using the R&D scheme, which is great. However, overall business investment in innovation has only seen a marginal increase.
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As non-essential business begins to reopen after months of non-trading, and those on furlough start to return to work, many companies across the UK are pressing the ‘resume’ button in an environment with greater volatility than ever before. This will pose challenges on an unprecedented scale; therefore, companies will be doing all they can to ensure that there is enough cash available to weather the storm that is to come.
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It is safe to say that the sudden emergence of Covid-19 and its impact has taken the world by surprise. It has brought economies to their knees as well as posed social challenges, but most importantly, it represents a great threat to the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable. In these truly unprecedented times, our hopes of fighting, mitigating, and eventually, overcoming this global pandemic rest on the shoulders of innovative companies, universities and other organisations coming up with technical solutions to solve this problem, and fast.
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Honda’s decision to close its Swindon car plant by 2022 has been hijacked by the politics of Brexit. No surprise there, but the closure also blows a big hole in the government’s industrial strategy, which placed some big bets on the development and production of electric vehicles in the UK.

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• Hacker Young study identifies obtaining more AI patents as key to UK’s future growth
• System for obtaining patents stacked against SMEs

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GovGrant, the innovation and R&D tax specialist, has urged the Chancellor to use the tax system to boost the UK’s army of inventors and innovators in the Budget on 29 October.

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The Chancellor has announced that Budget day 2018, one of the busiest news days in the financial calendar, will be earlier than expected, on 29 October.

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Charles Darwin said that ‘it’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change.’ He was citing the animal kingdom, but (if he was still with us) he could equally be channeling the UK aerospace sector, one of the UK’s most important industries.

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One of the more heartening aspects of this year’s Federation of Small Business (FSB) innovation survey is that SMEs know they need to innovate, particularly in the face of competition.

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Come and join us for a free breakfast seminar on Tuesday 24th July 2018, in the heart of St Albans.

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