An accountancy firm has accused HMRC of correcting up to 2,100 research and development (R&D) tax relief claims, claiming it is abuse of its powers which HMRC said is ‘simply untrue’
Price Bailey was highly critical of the way HMRC is dealing with issues over R&D claims, saying it appears to wants to ‘avoid opening formal enquiries’ into applications relating to fraud after HMRC sent out almost 3,000 letters to businesses.
A freedom of information (FOI) request filed by the firm showed that the anti-fraud unit in the fraud investigation service at HMRC amended 2,100 applications for R&D corporation relief in 2022 and 2023.
An HMRC spokesperson said: ‘These claims are simply untrue. We use our powers correctly and strictly within the law which means we have the right to correct errors or omissions when they are identified within claims.
‘While it’s important that R&D tax reliefs are easy to claim and provided quickly to genuine claimants, we need to balance this against the unacceptable levels of non-compliance that have been identified, for which the public rightly expect us to take action.’
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