Cardiff Companies Lead the Way in Welsh R&D Tax Relief Claims

Cardiff leads the way as the county with the highest percentage of innovative businesses across the 22 unitary authority areas in Wales.

28 April 2020

Wendy Smith

A total of 315 successful claims were made by Cardiff companies (2.4% of all enterprises within the area), including SMEs and large businesses, for R&D tax relief in the latest 2017-18 figures released today by HMRC. This puts Cardiff at the top of an Innovation League Table by innovation funding specialists ABGI UK. It shows the percentage of businesses making successful R&D tax claims in each of the region’s unitary authority areas (see FIGURE 1 below).

The latest updated HMRC figures show companies in Wales secured a total of 1,530 R&D tax relief claims in the 2017-18 period. A total of £95m in tax relief was claimed on the back of £525m worth of innovation-focused investment made by Welsh companies.

The Wales League Table shows Bridgend is the second most active area with 2.32% of businesses securing successful R&D tax relief claims while Denbighshire ranked third with 2.12% of businesses claiming. Merthyr Tydfil is at the foot of the table with only 0.34% of its businesses securing a successful claim.

Article originally published on Business News Wales

Read the full article here