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Delivering a personal touch with our specialist team - how randd separates itself from other competitors

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Author: Harley Maye

Simply put, we offer post-claim care – because we care.

Randd is of the scale to deliver the highest quality, while ensuring that clients are still valued and get the personal touch. As well as being an expert in our clients’ annual submissions, we have a specialist team in place to onboard clients that have failed with another supplier.

Every person involved in these cases has a high level of qualification and relevant experience within the sector, and they are paired up with a report writer also experienced in the field. Simply put, we offer post-claim care – because we care. As well as this, being a part of the wider K3 Capital Group is a key part of what sets us apart from our competitors.


WHERE OTHERS FAIL…

A lot of our business comes from handling HMRC rejections that were submitted by other companies or by the client themselves. The problem occurs when those submitting aren’t educated in the market and the result is sub-par, especially when it comes to meeting the new compliance requirements. They then don’t have the right technical expertise to defend it.

When an enquiry from HMRC is received, it could be a letter with two or three questions simply searching for a brief bit of clarity. This is usually the case when submitted by us at randd; a short query to stress-test the validity of the work. On the other hand, elsewhere, HMRC could send out a 40-page document – which isn’t pleasant to deal with, which is why we offer our services to external clients to handle this for them.


TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

It is important for a submission to involve a technical specialist from outside the business to write your technical narrative. Along with them, randd provides project managers to oversee the technical side of reporting. This is so the wording and understanding is correct, and a second opinion to confirm a valid advancement. We conduct a two-hour elicitation with our client to get all the information of the project, only allocating these cases to a specialist with the relevant background.

The way reporting is written is very different from how it used to be, as it is now very economically written. ‘Emotional wording’ cannot be included in reports, usually found if a client writes it themselves; nor ‘commercial wording’, when a so-called expert writes it for them. What we do at randd is purely scientific.

 


HMRC INSPECTIONS ARE ON THE RISE

After adding significantly more inspectors to their team to deal with the R&D tax claims backlog following covid, HMRC are now much more stringent on what can actually be classed as a scientific advancement or technical advancement.  At randd, we have technical experts paired up with relevant project managers to achieve this.

With HMRC ramping up inspections, reporting has to be more robust. The reason our reporting is more robust than others’ is down to the technical team having the right experts, having the right report writers, as well as the risk profiling we conduct.

Along with this winning combination, we offer a free health check on our client’s last report, an impartial audit which we can conduct as part of the onboarding process. Doing this gives us more understanding of what stead our client is in with HMRC and what has been submitted, which gives us a lot of room to advise on improvements.

It also allows us to pinpoint the differences between the old and new process, because even successful submissions a few years ago and the supporting evidence given will look completely different now and is likely to not be accepted and therefore R&D tax credits not paid out.


KEEPING UP WITH INDUSTRY CHANGES

Randd worked with HMRC to submit the post-covid backlog in batches. We listened to what needed to be changed, and we’ve really honed in on what has to be done to deliver successful claims in HMRC’s new way of thinking.

What we quickly realised is that it is now very much about aligning things to strict facts, numbers and that quantification of what was done, rather than commercial drivers. There needs to be a deeper scientific understanding.

As well as this, previously an advancement within one business that wouldn’t easily be replicated at another one was generally accepted. Now, it has to be strictly, not an advancement for your business alone, but instead for the wider knowledge of the sector and has to be a lot more prevalent than it was before.


K3 CAPITAL GROUP

In this very diluted market, R&D tax companies will state on their website that they’ve submitted X amount of claims, but the truth is that it’s a very diluted market, and this is where randd separates itself from other competitors…

Because we’re a part of the wider K3 Capital Group, we can assure our clients of long-term security when hiring our services. This levels us with the biggest players in the market, but we still operate at a scale to deliver a personal touch as well as the highest quality for our valued clients.

As a group we’re invested in by Sun Capital, so we have major financial backing – we’re not going anywhere. Whereas boutique firms with a smaller workforce or that aren’t part of a wider group don’t possess this level of security and therefore their compliance tolerance is a lot lower. Because of this, claims are put through that have a strong chance of being challenged by HMRC.

We deal with a lot of clients that are now being stung, having submitted their claims through firms that have ceased trading. The number of R&D tax firms has risen and fallen in recent years, as many firms have been established but haven’t been able to keep up with the increased volume of enquiries, and with the rate that things are being picked out by HMRC.


CASE STUDY

As an example of the post-claim support we provide; we helped a data analytics company in its successful defence during an HMRC enquiry into its R&D tax credits claim. HMRC opened an enquiry into its R&D tax credits claim, asking questions about the validity of certain aspects of the submission regarding the projects included, but the company kept every penny of its claim and could breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Its founder and CEO appreciated the lengths to which randd went in ensuring his company received the R&D tax credit reimbursement it was due:

“We appreciate the level of support we got from the entire randd team. Even though it lasted 14 months, I have absolutely no idea how many years it would have lasted without the randd team. Everyone was trying to do his or her job the best they can and the randd team helped us all achieve that goal.

“I would emphasise randd’s strong technical knowledge; understanding the process and how HMRC makes decisions; and their entire process of making a claim and preparing all the paperwork is very efficient. We got professional help from the randd team – and this means a lot to us.”


GET IN TOUCH

We’ve assembled a team of professionals whose expertise cover every sector and every possible challenge we in the R&D tax credits industry may face. No matter where your submission is in the process, one of our specialists can handle your claim to ensure it is of optimal compliance and you ultimately receive the maximum reward possible.

Get in touch

☎  01332 409 711
  [email protected]