BDO Ireland
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Research, Development, and Innovation Incentives

Research, Development, and Innovation Incentives

BDO’s Research and Development (“R&D”) Incentives practice is Ireland’s longest established Engineer led practice. We are one of the most experienced and widely regarded practices in Ireland, with our services ensuring that you receive the R&D grants, tax credits, and the reduced tax rates to which you are entitled.

*R&D Tax Credits are rising to 30% for accounting periods commencing on or after 1^st January 2024

R&D INCENTIVES SAVINGS AVAILABLE

Maximising available R&D grant and credit supports can significantly reduce the cost of carrying out R&D for your company, with the savings typically being in the order of circa 33% for large companies and 50% or more for SME’s.

Additionally, the tax payable on profits derived from IP created as a result of your companies R&D can be effectively reduced by up to 50%.

The key to maximising the savings is to understand at what point in the project lifecycle these supports should be considered. At BDO we can help you to map this out and ensure no savings are missed.

This simple chart highlights some of the key supports available across the project lifecycle, as well as the key benefits associated with such supports.

*R&D Tax Credits are rising to 30% for accounting periods commencing on or after 1^st January 2024

BDO EXPERTISE

Our team comprises engineering and scientific experts, who coupled with our tax technical experts, can help you robustly maximise R&D incentives across the full lifecycle of your projects.

Not only have we successfully qualified well over half a Billion of R&D expenditure across these incentives, but we have also significantly reduced the time input required for our clients, without comprising on the robustness of the incentive claims made.

We have compiled some of the largest R&D Incentives claims made in the country to date and we have exceptional Revenue audit experience in respect of R&D tax credits, with Revenue reviews resulting in less than a 1% reduction to the claimed amounts.

HOW CAN BDO HELP?

We have extensive experience in all industry sectors and work with companies of every size and scale. Through our engineer / scientist led approach we can provide tailored workshops for your staff to educate them on the R&D incentives available, the types of activities that would typically be allowable, and how to ensure documentation / activity tracking is sufficient to support any claims.

We empower your people through training to enable them to recognise activities that would qualify for R&D incentives so that they can make applications / claims in the future. This ensures that you are not forgoing any incentives that are available to the company.

Documentation preparation is a critical and time-consuming part of any R&D incentives process; in fact, if they are incomplete or are unimpressive, the chance of making a successful application or claim can be reduced significantly. BDO’s R&D practice has 30 years of international experience preparing documentation for R&D incentives. Unlike other service providers, we remove the administrative burden from your employees, and this enables them to focus on actual business objectives.

Business structures, transactions, and complex legislation can significantly affect current and future R&D incentives applications and / or claims. Along with the application / claim documentation, an organisation is required to ensure that the costs and activities it claims are eligible under the R&D incentives. Our tax technical and accounting experts can assist you in this area.

We work with you to identify and implement appropriate tracking programs, primarily leveraging the documentation you already have. This will help support your claim without creating additional administration or special “R&D only” documentation. We also offer a unique interactive cloud based project management and data analytics solution which can be tailored to your requirements.

We are there to help should your claim be selected for a more detailed review by Revenue. Our knowledge of legislation and experience with managing the claims process can ensure the entire process is as efficient as possible, while also minimising disruption.

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OUR RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT & INNOVATION AREAS

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The Digital Gaming Tax Credit offers companies developing digital games a tax credit of up to 32% per qualifying game. This credit can be claimed by the company on an annual basis or at the conclusion of the game development effort.

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Knowledge Development Box Tax Relief

The Knowledge Development Box (“KDB”) is a corporation tax relief on income from qualifying assets. The KDB offers the opportunity for an effective tax rate of 6.25% on qualifying profits generated in periods commencing on or after 1 January 2016. The relief available is linked to the percentage of qualifying R&D expenditure incurred in Ireland.

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Research & Development Tax Credits

The Irish research and development ("R&D") tax credit regime provides a 25% credit for qualifying expenditure on qualifying activities (rising to 30% for accounting periods commencing on or after 1st January 2024). Significantly, this tax credit can be used to reduce a company’s corporation tax liability or can be claimed as a cash refund if the company does not have a liability.

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Research, Development & Innovation Grants

Business start-ups, SMEs and large established companies at all stages of development can apply for funding supports to assist them to grow and expand through Research, Development and Innovation (“RD&I”). The range of supports are considerable and are delivered through a variety of State agencies and EU Institutions.

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