节省研发税收抵免

Authors Tal FeingoldInvestment Policy Lead Charlie MercerDeputy Policy Director Dom HallasExecutive Director AboutStartup Coalition Startup Coalition, formerly the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), is an independent advocacygroup that serves as the policy voice for Britain’s technology-led startups and scale ups. Startup Coalition was founded in 2010 by Mike Butcher, Editor-at-Large of technology news publisherTechCrunch, and Jeff Lynn, Chairman and Co-Founder of online investment platform Seedrs. StartupCoalition works across a broad range of policy areas that matter the most to startups and scale ups: ExecutiveSummary R&DTax Credits aren’t working for startups UK startups are sailing into a perfect storm – reduced levels of private sector capital, the proposedreduction in R&D tax credits relief and widely held frustrations with HMRC’s administration of the currentR&D tax credit scheme - together represent a slow-motion extinction level event for the ecosystem. ●Under current plans, the average sum a startup will see their R&D tax credit receipt reduced by£100,000, amounting to a 30-40% cut compared to what they were previously entitled to.●The enhanced credit, introduced this year, will impact only a limited number of tech startups asthe 40% spend threshold is set too high.●HMRC is failing to administer the scheme effectively - hard-stretched founders face uncertainty, The potential impact of the current plans is stark: startups will leave the UK; jobs will be lost;new products won’t be created; there will be less R&D by small innovative businesses in the UK. Ablueprintfor a truly simplified R&D taxcreditthat powers real R&D Startup Coalition proposes a plan to truly simplify the tax credits scheme, reward real R&D, reduce errorand fraud, and help HMRC successfully administer the scheme for startups – all while accommodatingthe fiscal restraints facing the Exchequer. In this report we also propose steps to reduce the cowboy Our seven point plan is as follows: A merged scheme that supports real R&D 1.Introduce a £30,000 de minimis qualifying claim size threshold for the R&D tax credits scheme,reducing HMRC caseload by 25% and removing nearly half of the wholly non-compliant claims.2.Introduce a fully merged scheme for non-intensive companies to simplify the credit.3.Change the enhanced allowance to an RDEC credit of 33% for SMEs, reducing the R&D intensitythreshold as low as possible to capture innovative startups from all sectors. A fit for purpose HMRC 4.Reform the Standard Industrial Classification used to target firms in HMRC Nudge Letters to fitthe modern economy.5.Create units in HMRC that are structured around sector specific verticals. Curtail Cowboy R&D Agencies 7.Introduce a voluntary standards body to create a set of commitments and guidelines that R&D Introduction To tackle the biggest challenges facing our country, we must grow the economy. Enabling more researchand development (R&D) is critical to achieving economic growth. Startup Coalition exists to advocate forpolicies that enable the UK’s most innovative firms to thrive, and few policy interventions of the last In simplest terms, the R&D tax credit enables firms to get money off their tax bill, or a cash payment, forspending on qualifying research and development. The credit, first introduced under Tony Blair at theturn of the millennium, was created to stimulate innovation across the economy through incentivisingbusinesses with under 250 employees. A separate scheme was introduced in 2002 for larger firms. The credit enables startups to get to market faster, helps de-risk innovation and is often a crucial sourceof cash flow when startups are just getting started. The scheme is hugely popular and is one of thefoundational pillars for understanding how the UK has managed to rapidly build such a thriving startup ecosystem. In the tax year 2020 to 2021, 89,300 R&D tax credit claims were submitted to HMRC, anincrease of 7% from the previous year.1In a survey of over 250 startup founders conducted by the But over the last twelve months things have changed. Firstly, the macro-economic environment has led investment in startups to decrease as inflation drives upthe cost of capital across the globe. Atomico, a major VC fund, has predicted that funding in startupsacross the whole of Europe will drop to $51bn in 2023, down from $83bn in 2022, and $106bn in 2021.3 Startups are some of the most economically vulnerable firms in the economy, and are now competing for Against this backdrop, the R&D tax credits scheme has been a core incentive driving startups to invest incutting edge innovation. But in 2022, the Government announced it would cut R&D tax credits availableon the SME R&D scheme with limited warning or consultation. At the time, the Government said the cutswere due to concerns over fraudulent claims. Now, the Government is planning on merging the RDEC Allegations of misuse of the system have been widely