Almost two years after first circulating a draft of the proposed new guidance on State Aid issues for SME R&D claims, HMRC has finally published that guidance.

The new version of CIRD81670 was published yesterday and includes commentary on De Minimis Aid as well as links to EU guidance on State Aid matters. Having links to that EU information is useful in one sense but I have suggested to HMRC that it should be working with the providers of State Aid grants (mainly InnovateUK) to provide clearer guidance as to the status of specific grants. I think there is sympathy for my argument in principle but a certain scepticism that inter-departmental working at this level is possible!

Oh well, at least we now have HMRC’s updated guidance.