R&D Tax Relief for a New Finance Director: The Complete Guide

Quick answer: A newly appointed finance director should treat an inherited R&D tax relief claim as something to actively check, not assume is correct. That means confirming which scheme applies now, whether a claim notification deadline is approaching, who is the named officer on the claim, and whether the technical narrative would still hold up if HMRC reviewed it today.

A newly appointed finance director at a UK manufacturing, engineering or construction company inherits more than a set of accounts. If the company has claimed R&D tax relief before, the incoming finance director also inherits a live filing position, built under rules that, for many companies, have since changed. For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, the SME and RDEC schemes merged into a single R&D expenditure credit, with Enhanced R&D Intensive Support (ERIS) available for loss-making, R&D-intensive companies. This guide sets out what a new finance director actually needs to check, in what order, and where to go for the detail on each part.

Why does a change of finance director matter for an R&D tax relief claim?

Because it is a natural point for a claim history to go unchecked. The person who built the original claim, or managed the relationship with whichever adviser did, is no longer the person accountable for it. Fresh eyes are genuinely useful here: a new finance director has both the reason and, usually, the standing to ask questions a long-serving predecessor might not have asked. Our first-quarter onboarding checklist sets out where this sits alongside the rest of a new finance director's priorities [own-analysis].

Does the company still qualify under the current rules?

That depends on when the company's current accounting period began, and it is worth checking rather than assuming. Periods starting on or after 1 April 2024 fall under the merged scheme, or ERIS for loss-making, R&D-intensive companies; the mechanics for subsidised or grant-funded projects also work differently under the merged scheme than they did under the old SME scheme. Paperwork or advice that predates the merger may still describe the old rules; treat that as a prompt to re-check with a current adviser or our glossary entry on the merged scheme, not as current guidance. Our glossary entry on ERIS covers the loss-making, R&D-intensive route specifically, and our manufacturing, engineering and construction sector pages set out the kinds of projects we most often see qualify in each.

Is there a deadline a new finance director could miss without knowing it exists?

Yes, and it is the one most worth checking in the first week rather than the first quarter. Companies claiming for the first time, or whose last claim was made more than three years before the end of the notification window, must submit a claim notification within six months of the end of the relevant period of account, or the claim cannot be made for that period at all, regardless of the separate window described below. This is a genuine trap for a company that has gone quiet on R&D claiming for a few years before a new finance director arrives, because the deadline runs from the accounting period, not from when someone gets around to checking.

What is the separate two-year window, and how is it different from the notification deadline?

A claim can generally be added to, or corrected on, a filed Company Tax Return within two years of the end of the relevant accounting period, under HMRC's published guidance on time limits for claims. This window governs amending or adding to a return that has already been filed. It does not reopen a claim notification deadline that has already passed; the two rules operate independently, and missing the notification deadline cannot be cured by the fact that the amendment window is still open.

Should an inherited claim be trusted, checked, or actively re-worked?

Checked, as a default, rather than either extreme. HMRC's own annual report gives a specific reason for that: the overall estimated level of error and fraud across the Corporation Tax R&D relief schemes was 9.9% (£759 million) for 2022 to 2023, and HMRC's illustrative estimate for the impact of its compliance measures on 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 expenditure is 6.5% and 5.9% respectively. That does not mean any given inherited claim is wrong, and the direction of travel on the estimate is downward as compliance measures take effect; it means the base rate for claims generally has been high enough that checking is a reasonable, proportionate step, not an alarmist one. Our guide to getting a second opinion on an R&D tax claim sets out what that kind of review can and cannot tell you, and our HMRC enquiries hub covers what happens if a check does turn something up. Sourced context on the wider compliance environment, including HMRC's published figures, sits on our statistics page.

Who actually carries responsibility for an inherited claim once a new finance director signs off on the next one?

HMRC's Additional Information Form requires a named senior officer, usually a director, to be identified on every claim submitted, and that role commonly falls to the finance director. Becoming the named officer on a current-year claim is a reasonable prompt to have checked the claim history that sits behind it, even where the earlier work was done by someone else, though it is a reason to review rather than a statement of personal liability for filings made before the appointment [own-analysis]. Our full guide to the named officer requirement covers what the role involves and what happens if the declaration turns out to be wrong.

Where should a new finance director actually start?

With two checks that take an afternoon, not a quarter: when did the current accounting period begin, relative to the merged scheme's 1 April 2024 start date, and is a claim notification due. Our free calculator gives an indicative eligibility and value range against the current rules in a few minutes, and our first-quarter onboarding checklist places this review inside the rest of a new finance director's early priorities, so R&D tax relief gets checked without crowding out cash, banking and statutory deadlines, all of which matter more in week one [own-analysis].

Want a written view on where your company's R&D tax relief position stands, no call required? Start with our free R&D tax relief calculator, then request a written review from there. Our sourcing standards are set out on our methodology page.