R&D tax relief follows the project, not the sector.

HMRC's provisional figures for 2024-25, published in September 2026, show manufacturing and information and communication each making up 27% of claims, and professional, scientific and technical activities making up 20%. Together that is about three quarters of all claims. These are shares of the number of claims, not of the value claimed. Companies in many other sectors claim too, and the test is the same for all of them.

No. The relief follows the project, not the industry. A trading company chargeable to UK Corporation Tax can claim if a project seeks an advance in science or technology by resolving scientific or technological uncertainty. A food producer, a builder or a farm can meet that test just as a software company can. What matters is whether the work was genuinely uncertain.

Yes. Manufacturing alone makes up 27% of claims, according to HMRC's provisional 2024-25 figures. Traditional businesses often have real technical problems: a new process, a material that behaves unexpectedly, equipment that has to do something it was not built for. If a competent professional could not readily have solved it, the work may qualify, even in a long-established trade.

HMRC publishes claims by sector, but we have not seen it publish compliance checks by sector, so we cannot name one. What its figures do show is that checks are common: 17% of claims were checked in 2023-24, and 77% of checks led to an adjustment. A check looks at the claim itself, so the standard of evidence matters in every sector.

No. The additional information form asks for the company's SIC code, so HMRC sees it, but eligibility turns on the projects, not the code. A company with a retail or services code can claim if it carried out qualifying R&D. We check that the code and the description of the business on the form are accurate and fit the projects described.

Yes, if they carry out qualifying R&D, but delivering a service to a client is not R&D in itself. A service business might develop its own platform, method or tool and face real technical uncertainty doing it. That development can qualify. The routine delivery of the service does not. We separate the two when we scope a claim.

Selling goods is not R&D, but a retailer that builds something technically new can claim for that work. Examples are a bespoke stock system, a pricing engine or a product the retailer develops itself. As always, the question is whether a competent professional could have readily deduced how to do it. If the answer is that existing tools would do the job, the work is routine.

Creative work as such does not qualify, because the Government's guidelines say science excludes the arts and humanities. Technical work inside a creative business can qualify, such as a new rendering method, a tool or a data process that involves real technological uncertainty. Creative industry credits are a separate relief with their own rules, which we explain under related reliefs.

Yes, where the firm does qualifying technical work. Professional, scientific and technical activities make up 20% of claims on HMRC's provisional 2024-25 figures. Engineering and technical consultancies are a good example, because project work that looks routine can contain real uncertainty. One of our case studies is a building services engineering consultancy that claimed on five projects.

No. The value depends on the scheme, the qualifying costs and the company's tax position. Under the merged scheme the credit is 20% of qualifying expenditure and is taxable. ERIS, for eligible loss-making R&D-intensive SMEs, gives an extra 86% deduction and a 14.5% payable credit. The Government says companies get between £15 and £27 for every £100 across the two.

The people who know the technology are the company's own competent professionals, and we interview them. Our Core claim also includes a second-opinion review by a specialist in your industry from our R&D network. The adviser's job is to apply the R&D test and the cost rules accurately. The industry specialist tests whether the technical case would convince someone who knows the field.

We start with a questionnaire, then hold recorded consultations and interviews with the people who did the work. We keep asking questions until each project can be described in plain terms: what was uncertain, what was tried, what failed and what was learned. If we cannot explain a project simply, HMRC will not be able to follow it either, so we keep going until we can.

Yes. A project is defined by the technical problem, not by the industry label, so a food packaging project may involve materials science and software at once. The Government's guidelines deal with how to draw the boundary of a project. We set the boundary sensibly, so the costs of each project are clear and the technical story hangs together.

There is one set of guidelines, from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, last updated on 7 March 2023, and it applies across all sectors. It sets out what an advance in science or technology is, what scientific or technological uncertainty means and the role of the competent professional. We apply it to every sector in the same way.

Yes, if the project meets the R&D definition. A good environmental purpose does not make a project R&D, and one of our case studies makes the point: the start-up's climate aim gave the work context, but the claim rested on the technical uncertainty. For clean-tech, we describe the technical advance and its uncertainties, and leave the benefit to the world to one side.

Yes, where they develop something technically uncertain, such as new risk models, processing methods or security approaches. Integrating existing services into a product usually is not. Fintech claims are mostly software and data claims, so our software and AI and data pages are the best guides. Cloud computing and data licence costs can qualify for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2023.

Yes. Both involve hard engineering problems in demanding environments. One of our case studies is a start-up developing marine robotics and AI. A caution is that contracted-out R&D and externally provided worker costs only qualify if the work is done in the UK or meets the overseas exception, which can cover geophysical features that cannot reasonably be reproduced here.

They can, through manufacturing and engineering work. The key question for suppliers is who decides the R&D needs doing. Only the company that decides the work is needed, and can evidence that decision and the planning, can claim for contracted-out R&D. If a supplier works to a customer's specification, who took the decision that the R&D was needed has to be checked first.

Yes. Consumables used up in R&D, including materials, chemicals, fuel, power and water, are qualifying costs. Typical projects involve a new formulation, process or specification where the outcome was uncertain. One of our case studies is a recycled plastics manufacturer whose projects were driven by new food-contact regulations and material shortages.

Pick the one closest to the technical problem, not the one that matches your SIC code. A food producer automating a line might read manufacturing as well as food and drink. A property-tech firm might read software. If none fits, the principles are the same, and a call with us will establish whether your projects meet the test. We reply the same working day.