On 18 May 2026, HMRC launched a new R&D advance assurance pilot. It runs for twelve months. SMEs can now ask HMRC to pre-clear up to two tricky areas of a planned R&D tax relief claim, before filing. The service is free.
The pilot was first announced at the Autumn Budget 2025. It’s the latest in a string of HMRC moves to tighten up R&D compliance. The crackdown follows years of rising enquiries and high-profile contested claims.
There’s a catch. You can’t appeal if HMRC refuses. And once HMRC has refused on a particular area, you can’t apply again for that area in the same period. So while the pilot looks helpful, the decision to apply is itself a strategic one.
Our business tax team has put together this short note. It covers how the R&D advance assurance pilot works, and when it is worth using.
What’s Actually New
The existing full claim R&D advance assurance scheme has been around since 2015. It is tightly drawn. Only first-time SME claimants can use it, and only those with turnover under £2 million and fewer than 50 employees. It covers their first three accounting periods.
Uptake has been very low. HMRC’s own consultation evidence puts it at under 1% of eligible companies in recent years.
The new pilot is different in three ways:
- It is open to any eligible SME, not just first-time claimants. If you have claimed R&D before but not yet for this period, you can apply.
- It targets up to two specific issues in your claim, not the whole claim. And it is limited to four defined areas (see below).
- It is a pre-filing tool. You get certainty on the chosen areas before the Corporation Tax return goes in.
You still need to file the full claim through the CT600 with the additional information form. The pilot only covers the issues HMRC has agreed.
Who Can Apply, and for What
The published eligibility criteria are precise. You can apply if your company:
- is an SME for R&D purposes;
- is doing R&D, or planning to do R&D, in the accounting period you want assurance on;
- has not yet claimed R&D tax relief for that period; and
- has not already had assurance on the same two areas for the same period.
You can’t apply if your company is large. Nor if it wants assurance on three or more areas. Nor if it has applied for full claim advance assurance for the same period.
You also can’t apply if your company has used a DOTAS tax avoidance scheme. Or if it has been put on the Corporate Serious Defaulters list. Or if it has an open Corporation Tax enquiry. The same restrictions apply to any connected person.
The pilot only covers four specific issues:
- whether the project meets the definition of R&D for tax purposes;
- whether overseas expenditure qualifies for relief;
- whether you can claim R&D relief when work is contracted by one company to another;
- whether you qualify for an exemption from the PAYE and NIC cap.
Each application covers one project and one of these four areas. To get assurance on two issues, or on two projects, you submit two separate applications. The maximum is two.
How It Works
You apply through an HMRC online form. The form can’t be saved in progress. It also won’t accept attachments. You need to have your information ready first.
HMRC will ask for:
- your company registration number;
- the project start date;
- contact details for the senior officer and the competent professional;
- an overview of the project;
- your accounting period start;
- your forecast spend;
- the project duration; and
- the records you hold.
If overseas spend is your area, you also need extra detail on why it should qualify.
HMRC aims to process applications within 40 calendar days. That assumes the information you give is full and accurate.
If HMRC grants assurance, you get a confirmation letter and a note of your obligations. The note covers what happens if the project changes. If HMRC refuses, you get a letter explaining why. You can’t appeal it, and you can’t reapply on the same area. You can still file the claim through your CT return in the normal way.
When It’s Worth Applying
The pilot helps most where you have a real technical question on one of the four eligible areas. Without it, you would be filing a claim with real exposure.
The most useful cases tend to be:
- projects where it is unclear if the work is R&D for tax purposes;
- claims involving overseas subcontractors or staff;
- claims affected by the PAYE/NIC cap.
The pilot is less useful for routine claims. It also offers less where you have made similar claims successfully before. And it can become a distraction when time is tight against the CT deadline.
The application itself is real work. The form can’t be saved, so you need to draft offline first. And because there is no appeal if HMRC refuses, a weak application can backfire. You can end up worse off than if you had not applied.
For most directors and finance teams, the question is simple. Is the risk on the chosen area big enough to justify the work? Sometimes yes. Sometimes the better answer is a carefully prepared claim with strong contemporaneous documentation.
How Hamlyns Can Help
A word on what we do and don’t do. We are not an R&D technical assessment firm. We don’t decide whether your project counts as R&D for tax purposes. That technical judgement is for you and, where needed, your in-house lead or an R&D specialist. Our role starts once that position is settled.
From there, our business tax team helps Surrey SMEs put R&D claims onto HMRC’s system cleanly. We prepare the additional information form around your technical narrative. We file the claim through the CT600. We get the cost figures right. And if HMRC comes back with a question after filing, we handle that too.
For the new R&D advance assurance pilot, we can help you decide whether an application is worth doing. We can pick the area that gives the most useful certainty given your technical position. And we can structure the submission around the conclusions you have already reached.
If you would like to talk through whether the pilot fits your next R&D claim, please get in touch. Twelve months is a short window for a pilot scheme. The earlier you decide whether to use it, the more value you’ll get.
