September 2025 release (tax year 2023-24)

HMRC's September 2025 release covers claims for accounting periods ending in 2023-24. It is the first to show the effect of the rate changes that followed the 2022 Autumn Statement, the first to include the higher credit rate for R&D intensive SMEs, and the first to cover a full year in which every claim had to be supported by an additional information form. The result is a much smaller number of claimants, with the money claimed almost unchanged.

Relief held steady at £7.6bn

HMRC estimates that £7.6bn of relief was claimed for 2023-24 (£7,555m in the tables), 2% less than the £7.7bn claimed for 2022-23. The qualifying R&D spending behind those claims was £46.1bn, 1% lower than the year before. After two years of sharply falling claim numbers, the overall value of the reliefs has barely moved.

A quarter fewer claims

There were 46,950 claims, 26% fewer than in 2022-23 and the lowest number since 2015-16. Claims peaked at 87,180 in 2020-21, so the number has now fallen by 46% in three years. The 44,065 companies claiming fell by a similar proportion.

The fall was much steeper in the SME scheme, where claims dropped by 31% to 36,885, than under RDEC, where they fell by 5% to 10,065. Within RDEC, claims by large companies fell by 12% and claims by SMEs using RDEC by 2%. Among the SME scheme claims, 3,990 were from loss-making companies that qualified as R&D intensive and could claim the higher 14.5% credit rate.

The shift from the SME scheme to RDEC

From 1 April 2023 the SME scheme became less generous, with its enhancement cut from 130% to 86% and its payable credit from 14.5% to 10%, while the RDEC rate rose from 13% to 20%. The main rate of Corporation Tax also went up from 19% to 25%, which increases the value of SME deduction claims and reduces the net value of RDEC.

The figures move as those changes would suggest. Relief through the SME scheme fell by 29% to £3.15bn. Relief through RDEC rose by 36% to £4.41bn, of which £3.6bn was claimed by large companies and £795m by SMEs. RDEC now accounts for 58% of all relief, the first year since 2015-16 in which RDEC and its predecessor scheme together have outweighed the SME scheme. The SME scheme still accounts for 79% of claims, but at about £85,000 its average claim is a fraction of the £1.1m average for large companies under RDEC.

Many accounting periods in 2023-24 started before 1 April 2023, so for those claims the new rates apply only in part. The full effect will show in later years.

Why the average claim jumped

The average claim rose by 33% to about £160,000. That is not because a typical company is claiming more. Small claims fell far faster than large ones: between 2020-21 and 2023-24, claims of up to £5,000 fell by 71%, while claims of over £2m rose from 290 to 500. With the smallest claims gone and RDEC, which tends to produce larger claims, carrying more of the relief, the average rises whether or not individual claims have grown. The largest claims dominate the total: the 500 claims over £2m, about 1% of the total, account for 44% of all relief.

The statistics do not show which smaller claims stopped and why. Lower SME rates, the additional information form and HMRC's wider compliance work all bear on the same group of claimants, and the tables cannot separate their effects.

Where claimants are based

Claims remain concentrated in London and the South East. Companies registered in London made 24% of claims and 31% of the relief claimed; those in the South East made 15% of claims and 20% of the relief. Every region had fewer claims than in 2020-21, with the North West and the East and West Midlands falling furthest, each by 53%. London and Scotland fell least, by 39% each.

These figures follow the company's registered address. A group registered in London may carry out its R&D elsewhere, so the regional tables show where claimants are registered rather than where the work is done.

Which sectors claim

Three sectors continue to dominate: information and communication, manufacturing and professional, scientific and technical activities. Together they made 72% of claims and 71% of the relief claimed in 2023-24. Their share of claims has grown as other sectors fell away faster: claims from wholesale and retail were down 74% on 2020-21 and from construction down 60%. Manufacturing claimed the most relief of any sector, at £1,975m.

What the next release will show

The 2023-24 figures are provisional. Companies can claim up to two years after the end of an accounting period, so HMRC has added an estimate for claims still to come, and next year's release will revise 2023-24 along with 2021-22 and 2022-23. HMRC notes that these revisions can sometimes be large.

The next release, due on 29 September 2026, will cover 2024-25. It will be the first to include the merged RDEC scheme and enhanced R&D intensive support (ERIS), which apply to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, so its scheme categories will differ from the ones on this page. This edition will keep showing the September 2025 figures as published.