Client Name: <\/strong>Sarah (anonymised) Sarah founded a software development company five years ago, building bespoke automation tools for the logistics When Sarah approached Legend Fusions, she was frustrated. She had heard other tech founders speak about significant HMRC repayments through R&D claims and suspected she had been losing out for years. Her records were partially digitised, expenses were loosely categorised, and she had no formal documentation of her development activities.<\/p>\n Sarah faced several compounding problems: Legend Fusions assigned a specialist R&D tax adviser who worked alongside Sarah’s technical team to build a \u25cf \u00a374,200 total R&D tax relief secured across two accounting periods. Sarah’s case illustrates a pattern Legend Fusions encounters regularly: innovative UK businesses leaving significant tax relief unclaimed simply because it was never raised by their previous adviser. By combining deep technical knowledge with meticulous financial analysis, Legend Fusions delivered a life-changing outcome, reinvesting tens of thousands of pounds back into Sarah’s business and setting up a sustainable framework for annual claims going forward.<\/p>\n Sarah has engaged Legend Fusions on an ongoing retained basis to handle her corporate tax returns, quarterly Client consent has been obtained. The client’s name has been anonymised to protect confidentiality<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Tech Founder’s R&D Tax Journey Client Name: Sarah (anonymised) Industry: Software Development & SaaS Business Type: Owner-Managed Limited Company Annual Turnover: \u00a3680,000 Service: Used R&D Tax Credit | Corporate Tax Returns Background Sarah founded a software development company five years ago, building bespoke automation tools for the logistics sector. Despite investing heavily in product […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-study"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7295"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8980,"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295\/revisions\/8980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendfusions.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIndustry: <\/strong>Software Development & SaaS
\nBusiness Type: <\/strong>Owner-Managed Limited Company
\nAnnual Turnover: <\/strong>\u00a3680,000
\nService: <\/strong>Used R&D Tax Credit | Corporate Tax Returns<\/p>\nBackground<\/h2>\n
\nsector. Despite investing heavily in product development, writing code, testing algorithms, and iterating on prototypes, she had never claimed Research & Development (R&D) tax relief. Her previous accountant had simply filed her corporation tax return without exploring whether her work qualified.<\/p>\nThe Challenge<\/h2>\n
\n\u25cf No prior R&D claims filed across four eligible trading years.
\n\u25cf Inadequate records linking staff costs, software licences, and subcontractor fees to specific R&D projects.
\n\u25cf Uncertainty over which activities legally qualify as R&D under HMRC’s SME scheme.
\n\u25cf Risk of HMRC enquiry if claims were not prepared with proper technical and financial justification.
\n\u25cf Upcoming corporation tax deadline adding time pressure to the process.<\/p>\nOur Solution<\/h2>\n
\ncomprehensive, fully compliant claim. The process involved:<\/strong>
\n\u25cf Conducting a detailed project review to identify qualifying R&D activities within HMRC’s definition of
\ntechnological and scientific uncertainty.
\n\u25cf Categorising and substantiating eligible expenditure: staff wages, employer NIC, pension contributions, cloud
\ncomputing costs, and contracted R&D payments.
\n\u25cf Preparing a robust technical narrative explaining the nature of the innovation and the specific uncertainties
\novercome, the cornerstone of any successful R&D submission.
\n\u25cf Filing amended corporation tax returns for the two most recent eligible accounting periods, maximising the
\nlookback window permitted under HMRC rules.
\n\u25cf Registering Sarah’s company on HMRC’s new Advanced Assurance notification system to streamline future
\nclaims.<\/p>\nKey Achievements<\/h2>\n
\n\u25cf \u00a331,500 cash repayment received directly from HMRC within six weeks of submission.
\n\u25cf Corporation tax liability reduced to nil for the most recent filing year.
\n\u25cf Structured a forward-looking cost-tracking system so future R&D claims can be
\nprepared efficiently every year.
\n\u25cf Zero HMRC enquiries raised, claim accepted in full on first submission.<\/p>\nConclusion<\/h2>\n
Next Steps<\/h2>\n
\nmanagement accounts, and all future R&D submissions. Her development roadmap now formally incorporates an R&D cost-tracking protocol recommended by our team.<\/p>\n