An industry leader in e-learning for the financial services sector is the latest company to benefit from the government’s research & development (R&D) tax credit scheme.
Unicorn Training Group received tax relief following specialist work by Rebecca Combes at the South Coast office of accountancy and investment management group Smith & Williamson.
According to figures from HM Revenue & Customs, more than £9 billion in tax relief has been claimed in Britain since the R&D tax credit scheme was launched in 2000-1, up until 2012-13. More than 100,000 claims have been made.
For R&D tax relief, a company must be carrying on a project that seeks an advance in technology or science; over a third of development costs could be recouped.
The scheme was introduced to encourage companies to invest in R&D.
Latest figures from HMRC show that £13.2 billion was spent on R&D in Britain in 2012-13 which qualified for relief, an increase of 10% compared with the previous year.
With offices in London and Bournemouth, Unicorn provides online learning and development solutions for customers through the innovative use of technology.
More than 350,000 people in 1,000-plus organisations complete two million courses and assessments with Unicorn each year.
The specialist in learning management systems was able to maximise R&D credits after a detailed review by Rebecca, who works out of Smith & Williamson’s practice in Southampton.
She said: “It is always worth reviewing your businesses activities to see if there is any entitlement, even if you have successfully claimed on previous occasions but are not sure where to go next.
“The tax break was introduced more than a decade ago by the government to encourage greater spending in research and innovation; latest figures from HMRC for the 2012-13 tax year show that claims rose by 26% to 15,930 compared to the previous year.”
Award-winning Unicorn has been using its specialist expertise in the financial services and procurement sectors to help organisations deliver great learning experiences, backed up by robust management and reporting features, on its learning and performance platform SkillsServe.
