Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the advisory market to support businesses claiming R&D tax relief.

HMRC recognises that agents play a vital role in the Research and Development (R&D) tax reliefs regime and around 90% of R&D claims involve an agent.

Agents offer valuable support for their clients to access the relief they are entitled to.

The Government expects all tax agents, including R&D advisers, to adhere to the HMRC Standard for Agents, which sets out HMRC’s expectations for all individuals and businesses involved in professionally representing or advising taxpayers. In addition, the government is continuing to explore options to raise standards in the tax advice market.

HMRC’s dedicated R&D Anti-Abuse Unit, focuses on the most complex and high-risk cases including tackling agents actively promoting the R&D schemes to businesses unlikely to be eligible. This includes working with the Advertising Standards Agency to remove false advertising by agents.