Best-in-Class R&D Tax Relief Training
Here are the reviews of our training courses, with thanks to our many members and certification candidates.
Susan Parker
This community of professionals is exemplary, and the information provided in the training would help many people grasp the concept of R&D and its complexities. I highly recommend this to any R&D Advisor.
Lisa Donald
Would highly recommend to everyone working in R&D no matter your role. Being on the commercial side of things it is imperative that you know who you are selling to and what qualifies. Businesses you are selling to, and work for, are at risk if you do not understand the fundamentals.
Allan McGinness
As R&D tax is a very subjective subject having the experience of multiple players helps to clear some muddy waters in the claim process.
Being in The R&D Community gives an element of security and the knowledge that we are trying to do things properly and to the best of our ability.
James Lizars
For a small accounting practice operating in an R&D intensive niche, having everything in-house for a full and compliant R&D service is tough.The community, the helpline, the second-set of eyes, and the training modules have all proved to be invaluable. They’ve provided clarity and confidence in how we’re advising our clients and given us access to expert additional resource when we’ve needed it.
Kevin Johnson
The R&D Community is a must for those R&D professionals that want to double check their own knowledge and/or learn more details about the scheme. It enables you to give better quality advice and provide an educational approach to clients that want to make a claim.
Jonathon Yeomans
It’s an incredibly useful addition to our internal R&D training programme, accessible 24/7, which helps to consolidate R&D learning by testing the candidate’s knowledge on all aspects of the scheme as they progress.
It’s also a valuable additional to our “belt and braces” approach of ensuring that all our customer-facing staff have the deepest knowledge of the R&D tax scheme possible.
I have been working in tax for many years now and I’ve come across some difficult topics. At the beginning of 2024, I began to find R&D just as complex (if not more), because of all the moving parts. In the profession we work in, it is unlikely to get support at the drop of a hat, for example, it can take days or weeks to appoint tax counsel. The R&D community were there on hand to help me. The certification course was great as it was divided into the key areas. I’ve made lots of notes and made my own PowerPoint presentations to discuss with clients. Finally, I’ve actually really enjoyed being part of this community, so thanks guys.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the programme. I do not come from an accountancy background and the welcome into the Cohort and support you get whilst completing the programme is fantastic. I feel my knowledge has increased and I am much more confident navigating the minefield that is the R&D scheme(s). It’s been a brilliant few weeks and I really feel this has been valuable to my development.
The program gives you a greater understanding of the scheme from a wider perspective, having worked for a multinational R&D specialist previously I was very prescribed to their way of interpreting R&D relief, while I still do not see their approach as wrong, it has given me greater perspective of the approach HMRC take and given me tools to support clients and navigate HMRCs interpretations more efficiently.
I did struggle with some of the questions wording and feel some questions could be open to interpretation, especially when the knowledge is limited. I do think this has been only on a couple of the courses so may be the personal writing style of the question setter, but simplifying the question wording with some consistency would have helped me a lot.
My experience with the programme was great. Its flexibility allowed me to efficiently balance my time between work, personal life, and the programme itself.
Despite having five years of experience in R&D, the programme provided opportunities to refresh my knowledge in key areas. Each topic was brilliantly planned and delivered by the R&D Community team, offering insightful, engaging, and highly relevant content.
I recommend this programme to anyone looking to advance their knowledge in R&D for tax purposes. I must add it is extremely refreshing to see a group of people looking to raise the standards of the industry.
I’ve been involved in R&D Tax Relief in one form or another for the last 20 years. For the last nearly 12 years, it has been my business.
Imposter Syndrome is something I have been competing with for all of that time. All of my “knowledge” has come from CIRD and from HMRC Enquiries into claims that I was involved with before setting up in business for myself. In those days an enquiry was a learning experience for both HMRC and for me, it was not the brain-numbing slog that exists today.
I am hoping that the results from this process will prove to myself and hopefully my existing and future customers that I do know what I am talking about. I can safely say that despite all of my experience this course tested and enhanced my knowledge and understanding of the R&D Tax Relief schemes in their various guises and I think I will be putting some of that new knowledge into practice as we move forward with new clients and claims. I have also reviewed most of CIRD at one point or another, but when you read and re-read things your knowledge and understanding improves.
Finally the support that you get from within the cohort and from Richard, Kevin, Paul and Karen has been top class.
If you think you know R&D Tax Relief and you think you are too big or too important to undertake this accreditation, you will take something new away from this process. I dare you to prove me wrong!
Overall, the experience of the Certification Programme was excellent. There was always support when needed from both The R&D Community team members and fellow members of the cohort. Additional material was made available such as practical examples and the office hours webinars made the information of the courses easy to understand in real world contexts and discussed the variances possible in different scenarios!
Very well structured, professional and extremely useful in reinforcing existing knowledge. After 8 years supporting R&D tax claims, certainly learnt more than expected, particularly through the additional reading (introducing new materials) and definitely the live webinars, so many thanks Richard, Karen, Kevin and the wider team.
I just wanted to say a big thank you to this amazing R&D community. After taking the exam and diving into the course materials, I’m back at my desk feeling fresh, motivated, and inspired. It’s been such a rewarding journey.
Even though R&D Tax is part of my daily work, this course has been a game-changer. The insights from the webinars, cohort discussions, and the incredible support from Richard and the team were absolutely amazing. Feeling so motivated and inspired—thank you all!
The full experience of the programme was great, my knowledge has vastly improved. The team’s resources have been top-drawer.
The sessions were incredibly interactive, with hands-on activities and real-world examples that made complex topics easy to grasp in particularly the merged scheme and explaining eligibility. The trainers were knowledgeable and approachable, I especially appreciated how the course broke down technical concepts into practical steps, making them accessible and immediately applicable to the work that we do on a daily basis.
Oliver Mountford
I found the merged scheme course extremely insightful, and it gave me the opportunity to test my understanding of the changes with short quizzes. The course simplifies the guidance released by HMRC and is easy to understand. I would recommend the course to all advisors/accountants.
Adam Shakespeare
Presented in a way that is easy to digest, pick up and start very easily which gives you the comfort of not being left out of date in an area of tax that is a bit of a moving target.
Kevin Johnson
The course was enjoyable, informative and highly relevant to changes coming into the scheme from 1st April. I particularly liked how any past scheme rules were explained first, so any new changes could be appreciated more. A well worthwhile investment (of an hour and a half) of my time to keep up to date, and my own CPD plan.
Max Glennon
The course has been incredibly useful to help us quickly decipher some of the more nuanced changes in the Merged Scheme, particularly in relation to subcontracted costs (both domestically and overseas), as well as how grants and subsidies interact with the new scheme.
Chelsey Gilluley
Information presented in a way that is more digestible and easily understood.
— Explaining Eligibility – helping to be more direct with the questions we ask
— Qualifying Leads – Recognising the importance of being more thorough at the start of the process to avoid surprises later down the line.
— Qualifying Costs – It is always good to emphasise which costs are eligible and when as there have been changes in the legislation and it’s always welcome to keep anyone preparing R&D claim staying in focus.
— Explaining Eligibility – more clear with a better structure
— Additional Information Forms – Great run through of the AIF, especially useful to me is the splitting out of RDEC parts of a claim
— Accountancy Basics – It’s made me highly aware (as a non accountant) how convoluted the tax calculations can be, especially with the number of different schemes, rates and overlapping deadlines.
— Qualifying Leads – Given some good advice on how to screen clients in the future.
— Qualifying Costs – Particularly liked the explanations on capital assets and testing.
— Qualifying Costs – I found the course enlightening, as always.
— Qualifying Costs – This course helped solidify my knowledge on the 5 R&D schemes and what does/does not qualify as R&D costs
— Accountancy Basics – I think that it is really important and key that, as a tax adviser, it is important to be able to clearly explain the different types of R&D schemes clearly to potential clients and highlight how the R&D tax relief is calculated.
— Qualifying Leads – We already have a strong screening process for prospects and client renewals but excellent summaries of the 5 different schemes and ballparking claim sizes.
— Qualifying Leads – Going to relook at the screening process we have, whereas it does cover most of what was suggested, it needs to be updated for the new schemes
— Explaining Eligibility – This module was helpful in identifying whether a project would be a technological advance rather than commercial, and the importance of competent professionals.
— Explaining Eligibility – it reaffirms a good process to follow
— Additional Information Forms – Great course, would recommend
— Qualifying Costs – Easy to understand videos and breakdown of costs makes it easy to get to grip with the costs that can be claimed and not claimed.
— Explaining Eligibility – Great course, would recommend.
— Ethics & Marketing – Reinforced the need for consistent and ethical messaging.
— Qualifying Leads – It was an interesting course, it does align closely with the problems and issues we see with clients and their expectations and how we would manage them. Would be useful to have a PDF to refer to.
— Accountancy Basics – Useful to know how to calculate the new merged scheme with the changes coming into effect.
— Explaining Eligibility – This is a well structured platform. The approach to training is well thought out, it is very effective in giving one a broad perspective on what exactly HMRC is looking for. Having done this, and others of their courses I fell so much more confident, but also eager to apply what I’m learning.
— Explaining Eligibility – Clear and concise, good as allows you to pause, and gives visuals.
