Business news: nine out of 10 design businesses in the UK are failing to take advantage of tax relief rules that could benefit them, according to the head of a design policy thinktank.
Jack Tindale, manager of the All-Party Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group (APDIG), urged architecture and design firms to ask their accountants about research and development (R&D) tax relief ? a scheme that allows firms to claim back £230 for every £100 spent on innovation.
"Only six per cent of firms that could claim for it actually do," Tindale said.
Small firms are particularly missing out, he added. "If you are employing fewer than 50 people, if you have a turn over less than two million pounds a year and you're doing something in the design and innovation sphere, you almost certainly can claim for it." He added: "There's a heck of a lot of money out there that is there basically to help the sector grow and help firms grow."
R&D tax relief is a government initiative designed to encourage firms to develop innovative products and services. Under the scheme, firms can claim 230 per cent of innovation expenditure against tax.
APDIG, together with the Design Business Association (DBA), is calling on the government to extend the R&D tax credits scheme to make it easier for design firms to benefit from it.

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