Interactive guide
Estimate what a claim could be worth
Estimated benefit
This is a guide, not a figure you can rely on. The biggest variable is what actually qualifies: a lot of what a company counts as R&D spend does not survive the qualifying-cost tests, so your real base is usually lower than the number you entered. These figures use current headline rates and simplifying assumptions, and your actual benefit depends on your tax position, your losses, the PAYE/NIC cap and the R&D-intensity test. Only a detailed review by a Chartered Tax Adviser can give you a figure to put in a claim. InnoClaim accepts no liability for any decision taken on the basis of this estimate.
Get a figure you can rely onPrefer to work it out by hand?
The calculator uses the same three steps you can follow yourself.
Step 1: estimate the qualifying base. Not your R&D budget: the apportioned staff costs, 65% of unconnected bought-in work, consumables, software, data and cloud, less overseas exclusions. Most estimates are wrong here, not at the rate. Work from qualifying costs.
Step 2: pick the route. Loss-making, R&D-intensive SME through all three ERIS gates: ERIS. Everyone else: the merged scheme. The gates are on ERIS explained.
Step 3: apply the arithmetic. The current rates, the after-tax netting and worked examples for both routes are maintained in how much you can claim, so this page never carries a second copy that can drift out of date.
Why this is only a guide
A calculator is the most quoted, screenshotted, decision-driving page an advisory site has, and the least able to carry nuance. The rate is public; your qualifying base is not, and that is where real claims diverge from estimates. Two companies spending the same amount can claim very different figures once the costs are tested, apportioned and restricted. Treat any number here as a sense of scale, and remember that the way to know where you actually stand is a short, honest conversation with a chartered adviser.