Food and drink companies and R&D tax are a marriage made in heaven. It was as though the tax man had the entire industry in mind when it devised the tax incentive more than a decade ago. And ever since, food and drink businesses have been making claims that add up to millions and millions of pounds. Even with that staggering figure, there are more claims to be made. Here we will look at the top three food & drink projects you can claim R&D for today.

Whatever you do in your food and drink business, there is the distinct possibility of an R&D tax claim behind it. We work with food and drink businesses all over the country to uncover claims and then get the most from each claim. The average claim size for the forms we work with is over £50,000. Imagine the difference that could make to your business. And it’s all only a few weeks away. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the top three food & drink projects you can claim R&D for -

A New Product Development

This is quite an exciting time for any food and drink business. A new product is often the chance to attract new customers and drive sales. Getting the whole team behind something new can bring an energy to your team and even to your customers, even if it as crazy as the gravy scented candle KFC have brought out. 

But a new product development can cost a lot of money. There is a commercial risk that goes with a new product. The process can include –

• Coming up with the idea
• Testing different ingredients
• Making batches
• Getting the public to sample it
• Looking for regulatory approval
• Promoting and advertising your new product

And we all know there is a lot of time, energy and money thrown into making a success of this. The UK government wants to reward food and drink businesses that develop new products. That’s where R&D tax credits come in. A new product is one of the main projects that you can claim R&D tax for. If you have been through this process in the last three years, then drop us a line.

A Change in Process

The way that you make your food is as important as the ingredients you use. Having a set process in place ensures that you have a consistent product time and time again. But sometimes you might want to make a change to that process. This could be for a number of reasons, such as 

• To increase capacity with maybe a new piece of equipment
• Saving time and money with something more efficient
• Finding a new way of working that helps the team

Whatever the reason for a new process, there is also a good chance that an R&D tax claim could follow. Again, this is about making your business more efficient. The UK government wants to ensure that the businesses of the nation are ready to go out into the world an compete. Brexit has heightened this need to be able to provide an increase to the economy. Find out more about how Lumo have been helping those in the food and drink sector with their R&D tax claims.

A Change in Recipe

There are external and internal factors that could see you make a change in the recipe of one or more of your products. These include 

• Changes in regulation or legislation
• Altering consumer demand
• Looking to reduce costs
• Difficulty sourcing ingredients

In fact, there are a stack of reasons that a recipe might be changed. If this is something that your food and drink business has been through, then you have a strong possibility of an R&D tax claim to follow.

You see, it’s the uncertainty of things that the government is looking to incentivise. The day you set out on the road to change the recipe (or any of these other projects for that matter) you have no idea what the future will look like. Could it be successful? Could it fail? The fact that you went ahead with it anyway is what is important.

If you have any questions about your food and drink business, then please just get in touch. We are here to help you understand that part of UK tax law and hopefully start you on the road to securing your share of this money.