Sachin Chauhan, Managing Director of Innovation Tax Specialists, commented;
“These statistics don’t make great reading for a variety of reasons, not least of all that 95% of the relief is being claimed by large companies. In addition, there was only a 1% year-on-year increase in companies claiming the relief and the majority of the value claimed was by companies in London and South East.
Whilst Patent Box is a welcome Government initiative, new measures are needed to encourage companies to benefit and greater levels of funding required to assist SME’s patent their inventions, providing them with the necessary support to manage risk, uncertainty and associated costs.”