Following the Spring Statement, HMRC is inviting feedback on the idea of expanding the use of advance clearances for R&D tax reliefs, aiming to reduce errors and fraud, provide businesses with more certainty, and make the overall process smoother for taxpayers.

This R & D clearance consultation will explore whether an advance clearance system could achieve these objectives and how it might be structured. The consultation is open for comments until 26 May 2025, and responses are welcomed from businesses that currently claim or plan to claim Research and Development reliefs, as well as industry groups and agents.

The consultation focuses on three main goals:

• Reducing errors and fraud
• Improving the customer experience
• Providing certainty to businesses

HMRC is clear that R&D tax reliefs should be simple to access, predictable, and provide clear assurance to legitimate claimants. This clarity is crucial for businesses to plan effectively and increase their R&D investments. While these goals are separate, they are closely connected.

HMRC acknowledges that the current voluntary R&D 'advance assurance' process hasn’t been as widely adopted as anticipated. The consultation will also look into whether voluntary or mandatory assurances would be more beneficial and outlines the various options under consideration.

In addition, a separate consultation has been launched to explore a new process that would offer increased tax certainty upfront for large-scale projects. This consultation will close on 17 June 2025.

Group relief helps reduce the overall Corporation Tax of a group of companies by allowing them to share losses. For example, if a parent company has profits of £1,000 and its subsidiary has losses of £100, the group is treated as making £900 in total profits for tax purposes, instead of paying tax on the full £1,000. The group would then pay tax on the £900.

Group relief lets one company transfer its losses to another company within the same group, but it doesn’t treat the group as a single entity for tax purposes. Each company remains a separate legal entity. The surrendering company must actively consent to the claimant company utilising its losses.

Key points of group relief:

• Losses and certain other amounts can be transferred between companies in the same group.
• The amount that can be claimed is the lower of the surrendering company’s available losses and the claimant company’s total profits.

There are special rules that apply:

• to UK permanent establishments of companies resident outside the UK and overseas permanent establishments of UK resident companies, if there is the possibility of relief being given in a jurisdiction other than the UK,
• if there are arrangements that could affect the group relationship, or
• if the loss arises to a 75% subsidiary resident in an European Economic Area territory.

Maximise your tax relief with the Structures and Buildings Allowances (SBA). If you have invested in new or renovated commercial structures, you could claim 3% relief annually—saving you money for the next 33 years!

The Structures and Buildings Allowances (SBA) allows for tax relief on qualifying capital expenditure on new non-residential, commercial structures and buildings. The relief applies to the qualifying costs of building and renovating commercial structures.

The relief was introduced in October 2018 at an annual capital allowance rate of 2% on a straight-line basis. The annual rate was increased to 3% from April 2020, and the corresponding period reduced to 33 and one third years. The rate has remained fixed since then and will remain at the same rate for the 2025-26 tax year.

HMRC’s guidance sets out the process for making a claim. In order to make a valid claim a written allowance statement is required. 

The allowance statement must include:

• information to identify the structure, such as address and description;
• the date of the earliest written contract for construction;
• the total qualifying costs; and
• the date that you started using the structure for a non-residential activity.

The claimant must also meet the necessary requirements in respect of the building itself and the chargeable period for the claim. 

The start date of the claim is the later of the following two dates:

• the date when you started using the structure for a qualifying activity; and
• the date that you’re due to pay for the structure or construction.

No relief is available where parts of the structure qualify for other allowances, such as plant & machinery allowances.

Great news for businesses! Tax relief on zero-emission cars and EV charge points has been extended until 2026. This move aligns with the UK’s ambitious Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, driving the shift to sustainable transport.

It was announced as part of the recent Autumn Budget measures that the tax relief for businesses acquiring zero-emission cars or installing electric vehicle charge points is to be extended. The reliefs were set to expire on 31 March 2025 for Corporation Tax purposes and 5 April 2025 for Income Tax purposes.

This measure extends the availability of the 100% first-year allowance for qualifying expenditure on zero-emission cars and the 100% first-year allowance for qualifying expenditure on plant or machinery for electric vehicle charge-points to:

• 31 March 2026 for Corporation Tax purposes
• 5 April 2026 for Income Tax purposes

The extension to the scheme highlights the government’s commitment to continue to support the growth in the electric vehicles market in line with the zero emission vehicle (ZEV ) mandate.

The ZEV mandate sets out the percentage of new zero emission cars and vans that manufacturers will be required to produce each year up to 2030. 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans sold in Great Britain will now be zero emission by 2030, increasing to 100% by 2035.