From humble beginnings back in 2017 starting with a one-man office and one client, research and development tax incentive business, Research & Development Specialists Ltd (RDS), now work with hundreds of blue-chip clients as well as SME’s across the country and has claimed over £23,000,000 back to support businesses in a time where every penny counts.

RDS, is the brainchild of Mark Joyner, 40, from Nottingham and Geoff Liberman, 68, from Hale, who are now seeing the fruits of their labour nearly five years on. From modest beginnings with its first and only client being a specialist asbestos removal company in the North-East, the Altrincham-based business now has nearly 500 clients in its portfolio.

“I can remember when Geoff approached me about R&D in the UK, at the time I had another company and a range of clients I could see would benefit from the R&D incentive scheme. We immediately decided to set up RDS as we could see the R&D Tax Relief Scheme initiated by HMRC is a huge opportunity for tens of thousands of businesses to increase our economy over the coming years. We knew many businesses are time poor and overwhelmed by the complexities of the scheme, so we focussed on how we could handle the whole process seamlessly for them,” said Mark Joyner.

“R&D Specialists Limited was incorporated to create awareness and take knowledge and advice to the marketplace regarding the enormous potential of accessing rewards for innovation.”

RDS will be celebrating five years in business in the new year and is predicted to turn over £2.7 million this financial year as it announces it’s helped nearly 500 companies, including names such as Pallex, Bell Lighting and Anthony Grice explore if they are eligible for R&D.

The HMRC tax incentive scheme was set up in 2000 to help stimulate growth and innovation across the UK. The scheme is aimed at UK limited businesses from start-ups to established companies, with the potential to access a tax refund or tax credit for any eligible R&D work conducted.

Mark continued: “For many businesses the research and development incentive is overly complex to understand, and they just don’t have the time to commit to investigating it or even starting their own claim.”

“Many also don’t realise the work they’ve undertaken is eligible to claim, or they don’t believe their industry fits the bill. Our ethos was built on demystifying the incentive so that every UK business, understands what qualifies and realises the potential financial rewards.”

“Our in-house financial analyst team work very closely with our clients to take them through each step of the process identifying their eligibility. We pride ourselves on being truly transparent, the client sees the financial reports and even receives the claim repayment or credit back to them directly – something we believe sets us apart from some of our competitors.”

The business now operates out of a 2500sqft office in Kings Court, Altrincham after it quickly outgrew its one-man office. It now employs 14 people and is currently on a recruitment drive as it looks for more business development managers.

“We actually work with over 150 accountants across the country supporting their own client portfolio to obtain R&D tax relief,” added Mark.

“More recently we are trying to do all we can to translate the technicalities, so that more people ‘get’ the scheme and look to explore its countless benefits – it’s not just lab coats and microscopes that need apply! From just a matter of hours with our team, we have helped individual companies claim back hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

Every company large or small, could qualify for the HMRC national incentive. For the SME scheme, it just must employ less than 500 people and have a turnover of less than £85m or a balance sheet total of less than £73m then it qualifies, and its eligible R&D costs receive an additional 130% deduction when calculating the taxable profit. 

Mark ended: “One business we met only last week told us on arrival we had only 15 minutes of their time as they were busy and unsure if they were eligible. Within that short meeting and by asking the right questions we uncovered that the business would be able to claim a six-figure sum for a recent R&D project. We are looking to now work with this client for the next five years. All we need is a little time and we do all the hard work this year and beyond.”