The choice is less "do it or buy it" than "which parts do we buy". Some parts of an R&D Tax Incentive claim can be handed to someone else. Three can never leave the company.
What always stays with you
- The declaration. The company declares that the application is complete and correct, that it kept appropriate records, and that the activities meet the requirements.
- The records. Keep them for five years after the claim. An adviser can organise them, but they are the company's records of its own work.
- The answer to an examination. If the department examines the claim it notifies the company, can set out its concerns in a statement of issues, and gives 30 days to provide evidence it requests. A further 14 days is available if you ask before the 30 run out, and extensions to an evidence request are capped at 92 days in total. The notices go to the company.
The calendar each model creates
For a 30 June year end the registration is due by 30 April. Both models need the same milestones; what changes is who drives them.
| When | In-house | Outsourced |
|---|---|---|
| During the year | The owner checks that hypotheses, tests and results are being recorded | Depends on the engagement; ask whether the adviser checks records during the year |
| July to December | The owner drafts activities and costs them | Interviews and document requests |
| Before 30 April (the department suggests a week ahead) | Have any variation to add or significantly change an activity approved | The adviser requests it, on the company's instructions |
| After submission | Keep the file ready for questions | Get the working papers back |
After the deadline, variations are limited to removing, reclassifying or re-dating activities (without lengthening the period) and minor details; adding an activity is not among them. If the department makes a decision you disagree with, internal review must be requested within 28 days of being notified of it. Those clocks run against the company whoever prepared the claim.
The continuity problem
Multi-year core activities keep their registered names, and each year's text describes that year's open uncertainty and experiments. That only works if someone remembers last year. In-house, the risk is the owner leaving; outsourced, the risk is the adviser keeping the working papers. Either way, ask for a handover pack every year: the submitted registration, project and activity names, the apportionment method and the records each activity relies on.
Choosing
Keep it in-house when one person can own the claim year after year, the activities are stable and few, and someone outside can review it before you declare. Outsource when the claim is large, the structure is complex, or nobody has the hours. Partial outsourcing is common too: Rand, for example, drafts from the company's own records for its team and an Expert Reviewer to check, while the company keeps the declaration and submission. For the self-prepared end of the scale see Rand vs doing it yourself; for who to outsource to, see specialist vs accountant and the R&D tax incentive guide.