Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 November 2022 to Question 74675 on Research: Tax Allowances, whether he plans to increase staff capacity on the R&D Anti Abuse Unit team.

HMRC is committed to tackling error and fraud within the R&D reliefs including announcing the new Anti Abuse Team being operational from April 2023. As part of our response to the criminal attack in April 2022, HMRC accelerated the formation of the Anti Abuse Team ahead of the April 2023 commitment. But resource is only part of the package of measures.

In Autumn 2021, the Government announced changes to the R&D tax reliefs, including additional information and claims requirements to address abuse and boundary-pushing.

At Autumn Statement 2022 the Chancellor announced that as part of as part of the ongoing R&D tax reliefs review, the Government is reforming the R&D tax reliefs to ensure taxpayer’s money is spent as effectively as possible, improve the competitiveness of the RDEC scheme, and take a step towards a simplified, single RDEC-like scheme for all.