As I discussed in this earlier post, HMRC announced on 28 October that it would be launching an Advance Assurance scheme for small businesses making their first R&D claim. Actually, the scheme was first announced by George Osborne in his 2014 Autumn Statement and included in the consultation document “Improving access to R&D tax credits for small business”, published in January 2015.

The idea has been around for a while, therefore. In fact, HMRC ran a pilot of Advance Assurance as far back as 2011. So when the document, published on 28 October, stated that full details of the scheme would be provided when it was launched in November, one might have been forgiven for thinking that would be a matter of days later (well, at least four days later).

I’ve just been told that the scheme will launch on Monday 30th November.

I suppose HMRC will have met their deadline of November – but only just!

In the meantime HMRC has produced some general information in the form of “FAQs“.