Course Catalogue

For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, all R&D claims now fall under the Merged Scheme (or ERIS). In this course, Richard Edwards provides a clear, current reference for getting those rules right, particularly if you’re newer to R&D or don’t prepare claims often enough to have the nuances committed to memory.

What you’ll cover:

• Key facts of the Merged Scheme, including how grants, subsidies and contracted out R&D are treated
• Which costs attract relief, including restrictions on foreign contractors and overseas workers
• The PAYE & NIC cap
• Rules, regulations and claim notification deadlines to follow when giving R&D advice

Key outcomes: You’ll confirm that your knowledge and claims process lines up with the current rules, giving you confidence that your advice to clients is accurate and up-to-date.

The definition of R&D for tax purposes has consistently suffered from one big problem – it’s defined in abstract terms that are open to interpretation. That can make it hard to translate it into practical terms that are easy for clients to understand across a broad range of sectors.

For advisors who find eligibility easier to discuss with some clients than others, or who struggle to push back when a project isn’t a fit, Richard Edwards offers a repeatable framework for running the conversation and capturing what you need.

What you’ll cover:

• How to prepare your client before the meeting
• How to explain HMRC’s eligibility criteria in clear, practical terms your client will understand
• How to structure the conversation — covering baseline, advance and uncertainty — without missing anything
• How to check the information your client gives you, and how to say no diplomatically when a project doesn’t qualify

Key outcomes: You’ll leave with a methodology you can reuse in every client meeting, plus a downloadable pre-meeting email and conversation template — so your eligibility discussions become faster, more consistent, and produce claims that are easier to defend.

The AIF is your opportunity to make the best possible impression on HMRC. Clear, relevant information reduces the chance of an enquiry; vague or inaccurate information invites questions. In this course, Richard Edwards and Karen Evans explain what to include, what to avoid, and how to handle the admin around the form itself.

What you’ll cover:

• How to describe a client’s work in the free-text boxes without introducing red flags
• Practical do’s and don’ts drawn from real AIF experience
• The essential admin: how to start, amend and submit the form, and the rules around doing so

Key outcomes: A deeper understanding of what HMRC is expecting to see in each of the free-text boxes. Implementing the recommendations in this course should reduce enquiry risk, and give you a handle on the practical process of starting, amending and submitting the AIF without unnecessary back-and-forth with HMRC.

The costs of R&D activities are one of the most scrutinised parts of any R&D claim, usually because errors can be obvious and it’s easy for HMRC to ask questions about costs.  This means that each line item needs to sit clearly in a qualifying cost category and be apportioned on a fair and reasonable basis. In this course, Richard Edwards works through each cost category in detail – it’s ideal if you want to tighten up on which costs can be included and the various ways they can be apportioned.

What you’ll cover:

• Qualifying costs across each of the 5 R&D schemes, including staffing (direct vs indirect, QIAs, apportionments and risk factors)
• Externally Provided Workers and Subcontractors, both connected and unconnected
• Materials, utilities and software costs, including three apportionment methodologies
• Clinical trial subjects, and common costs that can’t be claimed

Key outcomes: You’ll be able to accurately advise clients about which costs they can include in their claim, how these can be apportioned, and be able to spot the costs that shouldn’t be included in a claim before they trigger an enquiry.

With HMRC applying far greater scrutiny than in the past, taking on the wrong client or claim at the outset can create problems long before you get near a submission. For advisors involved in bringing on new R&D clients, Richard Edwards sets out how to protect yourself by asking the right questions before you commit to the engagement.

What you’ll cover:

• Basic screening checks to run on every prospect
• The five R&D schemes and what companies can expect back from each
• Competent Professionals, and the information you need to get from them
• How grants and subcontracting arrangements affect a claim’s risk level
• How to turn down a client diplomatically when the fit isn’t right

Key outcomes: You’ll leave with a structured screening process that filters out risk at the engagement stage, rather than discovering it mid-claim or even post-submission. And you’ll have clearer way to say no to prospects who don’t fit, without damaging the client relationship.

HMRC caseworkers are now using AI to analyse claims and assist with enquiries — and more advisors are doing the same to prepare them. For R&D advisors adopting these tools, Karen Evans FCCA sets out how to incorporate AI into your claim preparation process without breaching PCRT or HMRC’s Standards for Agents.

What you’ll cover:

• Practical uses of AI across the claim process: drafting, sense-checking information, and defending a claim
• Applying each PCRT principle to AI use — integrity, competence, objectivity, confidentiality and professional behaviour
• Using AI in HMRC correspondence, marketing, and quality assurance

Key outcomes: You’ll be able to build AI into your claim preparation process with confidence, knowing where the line sits between efficiency and compliance risk — protecting both your clients’ claims and your own professional standing.

Construction spans architecture, engineering, services and the trades, and R&D claims from this sector have drawn a lot of HMRC attention. For advisors who find it hard to gauge where genuine R&D sits within a construction client’s work, Richard Edwards breaks down the industry into its constituent areas of specialism and explains whether R&D is likely to be found within each.

What you’ll cover:

• The types of companies and work involved in each area of construction, and current technology trends across the sector
• Examples of construction work that doesn’t qualify
• HMRC’s attitude to construction claims, and the red flags to watch for

Key outcomes: You’ll be able to talk to construction clients with more confidence, identify where R&D genuinely sits within their work, and know when to push back on a prospect who shouldn’t be claiming.

Software eligibility is notoriously hard to pin down — technology moves fast, and clients often blur the line between what’s commercially new and what’s technologically new. This two-part course is for advisors who feel uneasy talking to software clients or drawing the line between eligible and ineligible work. In it, Richard Edwards gives you the concepts and the practical scenarios to take on this work with confidence.

What you’ll cover:

• Why HMRC is taking a tougher line on software claims, and the key concepts and terminology you need to communicate with clients in this field
• The difference between engineers, developers and hobbyists as Competent Professionals
• 11 common scenarios across software product companies, companies that commission software, and development agencies
• Red flags that signal a high-risk software claim

Key outcomes: You’ll have the principles required to distinguish eligible from ineligible software work, manage client expectations more effectively, and work out whether a claim belongs to the commissioning company or the subcontractor building it, resulting in stronger, more defensible claims.

Not everyone preparing or selling R&D claims comes from an accountancy background — but a working knowledge of a few core concepts changes how confidently you can talk to clients, discuss claims with their accountants, and write accurate marketing materials. In this course, Karen Evans FCCA takes you through the accountancy principles that matter most for R&D work.

What you’ll cover:

• How taxable profits / losses and Corporation Tax are calculated
• How companies claim R&D tax relief
• Worked examples (RDEC, SME, R&D Intensive, ERIS, new RDEC)
• Key deadlines and timeframes throughout the claim process
• Common, costly errors to watch for

Key outcomes: If you don’t have an accountancy background, or work in a commercial or client-facing role, you’ll be able to work more effectively with clients and their accountants, spot errors before they reduce a claim’s value, and explain the scheme with more credibility and precision.

Building on the fundamentals in Accountancy & R&D tax relief – the basics, this follow-on course tackles more complex accounting concepts, including long periods of account, calculating marginal relief and notional tax, how to handle missed notification deadlines, and R&D intensity calculations involving connected or overseas companies. For advisors already comfortable with the basics who now need to develop their understanding further, Karen Evans FCCA walks you through the detail.

What you’ll cover:

• Long periods of account, and changing a company’s year-end after a missed notification deadline
• Calculating marginal relief and notional tax
• How to handle connected companies when claiming through ERIS, including overseas companies and misaligned accounting periods
• FRS102 vs IAS38, the going concern principle, and Section 1308 adjustments

Key outcomes: You’ll be able to handle the accounting edge cases that basic knowledge doesn’t cover — reducing the risk of errors on complex claims and giving you the grounding to work confidently alongside a client’s accountant on trickier technical points.

Contracted-out R&D remains one of the most complex areas of R&D tax relief under the Merged and ERIS schemes — get it wrong, and you risk claiming for activity that actually belongs to your client’s contractor, or vice versa. This course sets out the contracted-out rules (formerly known as “subcontracting”) and how to apply them to work out who has the right to claim.

What you’ll cover:

• Defining customer, contractor and subcontractor, and the different types of activity that can be contracted out
• Determining whether the customer or contractor can claim — including pre- and post-contract R&D, and situations where a client can’t claim relief at all
• Contracts and evidence, connected contractors, and the optional elections available between customer and contractor
• Overseas expenditure restrictions (and exemptions), and the special provisions for companies registered in Northern Ireland

How it helps day to day: You’ll be able to work through a contracted-out R&D scenario methodically — identifying who holds the right to claim, what evidence supports it, and how overseas and Northern Ireland rules affect the position — reducing the risk of a claim being made by the wrong party.

Since HMRC increased its compliance activity a few years ago, SMEs are increasingly choosing R&D advisors on trust and competence rather than the lowest fee or the biggest promises. In this course, Richard Edwards sets out the ethical standards that matter most to clients and regulators, and what separates good marketing from bad. It’s particularly useful if you’re currently reviewing how your own service is marketed.

What you’ll cover:

• HMRC’s Standard for Agents and PCRT, and how they apply when preparing R&D claims
• The Good Practice Marketing Standard (GPMS)
• Practical ways to build ethics into your R&D service — and the business case for doing so
• How to review your own marketing materials against good and bad practice examples

Key outcomes: You’ll come away with a clear framework to assess your website, proposals and sales messaging, helping you win business on trust rather than price, and stay firmly on the right side of PCRT and HMRC.

Subcontracting is one of the most complex parts of the outgoing SME and RDEC schemes — not just because of the volume of rules on which company can claim under which scheme, but because HMRC’s interpretation of the legislation was contentious and, in places, overly simplistic. In this course, Richard Edwards outlines the rules and explains how they play out in practice, so you can work out with confidence whose claim a piece of subcontracted work actually belongs to.

What you’ll cover:

• The rules for an SME subcontracting all or part of its R&D
• How to handle connected subcontractors (and the definition of ‘connected’)
• SMEs conducting R&D for other companies
• Contracts, activities vs services, and routine work — plus the rules for Large Companies

Key outcomes: You’ll understand not just the rules but how they’re applied in practice — helping you avoid weak or problematic claims and act with more confidence when you’re helping SMEs to claim for subcontracted work (or work that they’ve performed as a subcontractor).