Assembling the relevant information

Before claiming you should gather relevant information about your R&D project, or projects, particularly:

• facts that show why you think the project is R&D within the tax definition (you can use Tool A for this), and
• calculations of the expenditure that qualifies for R&D tax relief (you can use Tool B (EXCEL 50K) for this).

Tool B 'Template to calculate qualifying expenditure and claim' also gives the CIRD references for more detail about the rules on what expenditure qualifies. You should check that you're applying the rules correctly to avoid problems with your claim. See the 'Top 10 common errors' for a list of the most frequent mistakes.