Business Tax- Post 01/04/2024 R&D SME and RDEC – Intensive tax credits (Box 653)

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Business Tax- Post 01/04/2024 R&D SME and RDEC – Intensive tax credits (Box 653)

16th October 2025

From 2025 new BT rules for R&D and RDEC With effect from 01/04/2024 the SME and RDEC scheme’s were merged and to be in a position to claim R&D intensive relief the company must satisfy the intensity conditions. If they do not then this relief is not available to them. There is no longer 10%/14.5% under this regime. This may help https://www.gov.uk/guidance/research-and-development-rd-tax-relief-the-merged-scheme-and-enhanced-r…. The screens in BT are now updated to meet HMRC rules – see below.

Research and Development tax relief: the merged scheme and enhanced intensive support – GOV.UK. Find out if you can claim under the merged scheme R&D expenditure credit (RDEC) and enhanced R&D intensive support (ERIS) for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024. There are now three unique rows on the left side when you open the R&D screen.

1. If you enter and claim the ‘Enhanced R&D Intensive Relief’ entry – it may auto tick boxes 650 and 653 (this is dependent on HMRC rules)

E.g- the R&D SME individual ‘Intensive’ (pre 4/2024) box has been removed and is now part of the ‘Enhanced R&D Intensive relief’ option on the left side – so theres no need for its own intensive box – check if your company can claim it.

When there is a credit claim etc then boxes 650/653 are automatically ticked if its a small/medium company