Seamus McCaffrey, a top agricultural accountant in Northern Ireland is set on raising awareness, urging farmers to apply for the R&D tax credit. He is trying to encourage farmers whose businesses are registered as a company to take advantage of the up to 230% tax credit on money invested in R&D.

Many businesses view R&D as projects conducted in a lab but R&D is much broader than we realize. Farmer’s who work towards developing different seed varieties, farm technology, or experimenting with new feeding regimes, genetics, lighting, or conditions could be eligible. If this sounds like you and your business, it’s highly recommended that you take a look into this tax credit.

With that in mind, the claiming process does require claim substantiation – you will have to back up your claim with documentation of the expenses incurred, the work done, and the progress made. Even if at the end of it all, your research did not pan out successfully, documentation of the process undertaken and the results of the failed experiments can substantiate the claim. “Some people imagine or think that R&D means you have to be linked to a university or that you have to have a dedicated research facility – you don’t have to have anything like that,” he concluded.