Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Consultation definition

What does Consultation mean? In pensions practice, consultation is the employer’s statutory duty to consult affected members or their representatives before implementing material changes to an occupational pension scheme. In England & Wales and Scotland this duty is set out in the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006, made under the Pensions Act 2004, with corresponding regulations in Northern Ireland and oversight by The Pensions Regulator (TPR). The duty typically applies to employers with at least 50 employees and requires at least 60 days’ consultation with active and prospective members (or recognised unions), providing sufficient written...

Meaning of R&D for UK Corporation Tax Relief: Pre- and Post-1 April 2024 Regimes, DSIT Guidelines, GAAP, HMRC Compliance and Case Law

Published by a LexisNexis Tax expert

Practice notes

R&D reliefs—meaning of R&D

This Practice Note explains what counts as R&D for four corporation tax reliefs:

Pre‑1 April 2024: SME R&D relief/tax credit and the R&D expenditure credit (RDEC)
Post‑1 April 2024: the merged RDEC and enhanced relief for loss‑making R&D‑intensive SMEs

For tax, R&D follows GAAP (FRS 102/IAS 38) as modified by Secretary of State guidelines maintained by DSIT. The 7 March 2023 version confirms that pure and applied mathematics count as science. HMRC’s Guidelines for Compliance expand on this.

FRS 102/IAS 38 broadly define research as planned original investigation for new knowledge, and development as applying that knowledge to design new or substantially improved outputs before commercial use.

Under the Guidelines, qualifying work sits within a project seeking an advance in science or technology, directly addressing scientific or technological uncertainty, with certain related indirect tasks also eligible. R&D runs from the start of work to resolve the uncertainty until resolution or abandonment; some prototype costs may qualify, subject to limits.

A competent professional should judge the uncertainties. Before 1 April 2024, qualifying R&D could occur anywhere; from that date, new limits apply to subcontracted R&D and externally provided workers. Good records and involvement by competent professionals are key...

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David O’Keeffe

Aiglon Consulting

I am an independent specialist adviser on the taxation of innovation, advising companies and other advisers on areas such as R&D tax relief, Patent Box and Creative Industry reliefs. I am a member of the London Society of Chartered Accountants’ tax committee as well as CIOT’s Corporation Tax technical Committee (and chair the R&D Working Group of that committee)....

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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