When one of your client’s is facing an HMRC enquiry may be asked the question “How did you establish the baseline for your R&D?”. You may not have included this baseline information in the preparation of their claim. Or you may have taken the client’s information at face value, many businesses assume they know what the baseline is because they have been in the industry for a while.

One way to be absolutely certain of the baseline, and to evidence this for HMRC, is to analyse the patent landscape. Often products and technologies never make it to market, so effectively remain “hidden”. This could mean that your client’s competitors may have carried out the R&D before, even if they don’t currently sell the resulting innovative product or service.

Using patent information can be a fundamental part of demonstrating that an R&D project is seeking to achieve an advance in overall knowledge or capability. This in turn establishes the baseline. GovGrant can provide a snapshot of the patent situation for a specific technology that answers the baseline question for HMRC.
Contact Eric Larson for immediate help and direction:www.taxconnections.com/Eric-Larson/12275762/United-States/profilepage