Established Finance

Established Finance › R&D Tax Relief › AIF Field Checklist

R&D tax relief

AIF field checklist

Every R&D claim needs an Additional Information Form, and a technically strong claim can still fail if the project descriptions read as generic rather than specific. This checklist works through every field the form asks for and what evidence actually satisfies it, so nothing is missing when you submit.

Tell us what's happening The Additional Information Form explained
Founded by Adam Parker No obligation to talk it through No product to pick before you get in touch

Before you start

Confirm you actually need one

Every company making an R&D claim needs an Additional Information Form, whether or not claim notification applied to you, and it has to reach HMRC before, or on the same day as, the Company Tax Return. See the Additional Information Form explained for the full mechanics if you haven't confirmed this already.

The checklist

  1. Company and contact details. Satisfied by: the company's own registration details and a named contact who can answer HMRC's questions about the claim, not just the accountant's general office contact.
  2. UTR, PAYE reference, VAT registration and SIC code. Satisfied by: pulling these directly from HMRC and Companies House records rather than from memory, since a mismatch here is an easy, avoidable rejection reason.
  3. The senior R&D contact inside the company. Satisfied by: naming someone who was actually involved in or can speak to the technical work, not a finance-only contact who would have to relay every question.
  4. Every agent involved in preparing the claim. Satisfied by: listing each adviser or agent by name, and confirming their HMRC registration status directly with HMRC before submission, not just taking their word for it.
  5. The right number of project descriptions for your claim size. Satisfied by: 1 to 3 projects means describing all of them; 4 to 10 projects means describing at least 3, covering 50% or more of qualifying costs; more than 10 projects means describing the top 10 by expenditure. Check your project count against this before writing anything.
  6. Field of science or technology, per project. Satisfied by: the specific technical field, not the company's general industry sector.
  7. The baseline knowledge at the start of the project. Satisfied by: what was already known or achievable in the field before this project started, specific enough that a competent professional in the field could recognise it as the actual starting point, not a generic industry statement.
  8. The technological advance being sought. Satisfied by: what specifically was being attempted beyond that baseline, stated precisely enough to distinguish it from routine development work.
  9. The specific uncertainties faced and how they were resolved. Satisfied by: naming the actual technical unknowns encountered, not business or commercial uncertainty, and describing what was actually done to resolve them.
  10. Qualifying cost amounts, broken down by relief type. Satisfied by: costs reconciled to the accounting records, split correctly by the categories the form asks for, not a single lump sum.

The most common failure

A project description that could describe almost any project in the field doesn't give HMRC the baseline-versus-advance distinction the form is actually asking for. This is a separate risk from missing the notification deadline entirely, and it catches otherwise well-prepared claims. Read each project description back and ask whether it names something specific to this project, or whether it would still be true of a dozen similar projects.

Source

Field requirements: gov.uk, submit detailed information before you claim Research and Development (R&D) tax relief. Not tax advice.

Talk it through

Need another perspective?

You may already know which facility you think fits. The more valuable question is whether it's actually the right structure for what's happening in the business. We'll review the situation before suggesting possible routes. It costs nothing to have that conversation.

Your enquiry is read by a person at Established Finance, not a call centre or an automated queue. We use it only to work out what's likely to fit and reply to you. We don't share your details with anyone else unless we introduce you to a provider, and only with your agreement at that point. Sending this doesn't appoint anyone or create a professional engagement, and there's no obligation at any stage. See our privacy policy.

What happens next

  1. A person on our team reads it. No need to know which facility you want first.
  2. If we can help, we may introduce you to a provider and tell you who they are.
  3. No charge and no obligation at any point. You decide whether to go further.
Adam Parker

Adam Parker

Founder of Muswell Rose Consulting Ltd, which trades as Established Finance · former Managing Director of Penny, an invoice finance business, working in mortgages, commercial finance and fintech lending since 2010 (career history).

Last reviewed:

Practical questions

Before you get in touch

How long does it take?

It varies by facility, so there isn't one number that fits every case. Some drawdowns against an existing facility complete within a day or two; arranging something new from scratch usually takes longer. We'll give you a realistic timeline once we understand your situation.

What information do I need?

To start, just a description of what’s actually happening in the business. If it progresses, the provider will ask for the usual things: recent accounts, a sense of turnover and trading history, and details of the specific need.

Related routes

The Additional Information Form explainedR&D scheme checkerR&D claim services