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Tom Maguire: Finance Bill’s changes to R&D could go further for start-ups

Boosting the tax credit for SMEs to 30 per cent was mooted in an earlier bill, but to do so, some EU legal hurdles would first have to be overcome

The €25,000 R&D credit was brought about for small companies and start-ups in that if the total credit available to them is less than that amount then it will be paid to them in full in the first year; no waiting around for this to be paid in instalments. Picture: Getty

I’ve written about the R&D credit many times in these pages. Last week we saw the Finance Bill make changes to this credit. The explanatory note that accompanies the bill states that the changes are being made to “reflect international tax changes”, more on which below.

The explanatory note continues that “these are timing changes and do not affect the quantum of credit that a company is entitled to claim”. The credit is the credit, ...