Tax Relief for Innovation: Patent Box and R & D Credits Regime by Dan Brookes of BDO
I introduced the patent box and our guest speaker in "Leeds Inventors Group: Patent Box and R & D Credits" 4 May 2013. Here are his slides.
We had a good meeting on 8 May 2013 and although we were a little low on inventors we had rather more accountants and lawyers in the audience. We were particularly pleased to welcome Ros Beattie of Company Solutions and Jordi Farré Gasol of Barcelona who is currently working with Schofield Sweeney of Leeds. Ros knows more than most about start-ups having been chair of Bmedia. She is now contributing her experience to the Business Enterprise Fund.
In the questions and answers session after the talk, I asked "what happens to the tax if a patent is revoked? Must the tax be repaid? This was a question that I had raised in similar presentations at Daresbury and Liverpool the previous month. Dan did not know the answer off the top of his head but he promised to look it up. This is his reply:
I introduced the patent box and our guest speaker in "Leeds Inventors Group: Patent Box and R & D Credits" 4 May 2013. Here are his slides.
We had a good meeting on 8 May 2013 and although we were a little low on inventors we had rather more accountants and lawyers in the audience. We were particularly pleased to welcome Ros Beattie of Company Solutions and Jordi Farré Gasol of Barcelona who is currently working with Schofield Sweeney of Leeds. Ros knows more than most about start-ups having been chair of Bmedia. She is now contributing her experience to the Business Enterprise Fund.
In the questions and answers session after the talk, I asked "what happens to the tax if a patent is revoked? Must the tax be repaid? This was a question that I had raised in similar presentations at Daresbury and Liverpool the previous month. Dan did not know the answer off the top of his head but he promised to look it up. This is his reply:
"Vince and I have spoken about the query you addressed with us at our respective events in Liverpool and Leeds. The attached link to HMRC manuals appears to infer that HMRC take the view that there will be no retrospective clawback of patent box benefits where it is clear that the company has claimed on a patent that has been granted by a qualifying patent office, even in the situation that down the line events take place which means that sales of product are no longer covered by the patent. In this scenario benefits are denied going forward but there is no retrospective clawback of relief.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/cirdmanual/CIRD210180.htm
I hope this is helpful."
It is indeed helpful and my thanks to Dan and Vince Walker of the Manchester office of BDO for their trouble.
A lot of useful information on the patent box and tax law relating to IP generally can be obtained from Intellectual Property Tax which is edited by Anne Fairpo of Atlas Tax Chambers. Atlas merged with 4-5 Gray's Inn Square just about the time I joined the set. Anne is also one of the contributing editors to IP Finance.
If anyone wants to discuss this article or IP or tax generally you can call us in Leeds on 0113 320 3232, Huddersfield on 01484 599090 or London on 020 7404 5252. You can also contact us through our message form.
