When you're preparing an R&D claim, it's easy to focus on what was built and how much was spent.
But unfortunately that's not what HMRC is assessing.
They're looking for four specific things. And if those four aren't clear in your claim, everything else becomes harder to support.
HMRC isn't assessing what you meant. They're assessing what you've actually shown.
1. An Advance in Science or Technology
This is where you need to be careful early on. It's not enough that something was new to your business. You need to be able to show that the work moved things forward at a wider level - beyond your internal capability.
A good way to sense-check it: are you describing something you built? Or something that wasn't already known or achievable? That distinction is what HMRC will focus on.
2. Genuine Scientific or Technological Context
Before going further, make sure you're actually in scope. Not everything that feels technical qualifies. You should be able to clearly place the work within a defined area of science or technology: software, engineering, data.
If what you're describing leans more toward commercial decisions, financial modelling, or design choices, it's unlikely to meet the threshold. Complex doesn't automatically mean qualifying.
3. Real Technical Uncertainty
This is where your claim either holds or starts to weaken. You need to pinpoint where the solution wasn't obvious, even to someone experienced.
- We haven't done it before.
- Something that couldn't be easily worked out at all.
If the answer was available, documented, or could be implemented without real difficulty, it won't qualify. If you had to stop, investigate, and work through it - that's what you need to bring out.
4. A Structured Attempt to Resolve It
Once you've identified the uncertainty, you need to show how you dealt with it. This is where many claims become too outcome-focused.
Don't just state what you built. Walk through how you got there. What did you try? What didn't work? What changed along the way?
HMRC is looking for evidence of a process - not just a result. And if that process isn't visible, the work becomes much harder to support.
How We Approach It
At Optimyze, we anchor every claim around these four points. Not as a checklist. But as a way of making sure the work is understood in the same way HMRC will assess it.
Because the difference between "work done" and "R&D activity" isn't the project. It's how clearly those four elements come through.
If you're preparing an R&D claim and want to sense-check whether these four elements are coming through clearly, we're happy to review it with you.
