WhisperClaims, the award-winning R&D tax claims software for accountants, today announces the addition of new Risk Assessment functionality within the WhisperClaims app and a new expert Claims Review service, both designed to help accountancy firms raise standards in the R&D tax relief world.
Since its foundation in 2018, WhisperClaims has sought to bring openness, transparency and efficiency to the R&D tax space, helping the UK’s SME business community benefit from the HMRC scheme by empowering accountants with software and support that enables them to provide R&D tax claims services with confidence[i].
These latest additions to both its cloud-based software platform and customer support service are designed to help accountancy firms make more informed decisions about their clients’ claims, and ensure submitted claims are robust and defensible.
Mike Dean, Managing Director, WhisperClaims, comments: “R&D tax claims represent a potentially huge service line for accountancy firms, as many recognise in their quest to move beyond compliance to the provision of advisory services. But it remains largely untapped. WhisperClaims recognises that accountants need support: support in navigating the complexity of clients’ eligibility criteria for the tax relief scheme; support in understanding which of their client portfolio qualifies; and support in mitigating the arduous and manual processes associated with completing an effective and audited claim. These additions to our product and service offering are designed to provide that much needed support to our clients.”
WhisperClaims’ Risk Assessment is an automated tool in its award-winning app. Every claim prepared is automatically assessed against at a variety of factors, including company sector, size of claim and company turnover, in order to benchmark the claim against claims for similar companies and give a rating of how likely the claim is to a) attract attention from HMRC and b) stand up to their questions. It’s not a measure of the eligibility of a claim, but a tool to help accountants understand the weaknesses of the claim and take steps to mitigate the highlighted risks.
The Claims Review service is a manual process whereby one of WhisperClaims’ R&D experts takes a deep-dive into the prepared claim and any other publicly available information about the claimant company, to produce a detailed document about the claim. The review looks at the likelihood that projects are eligible, based on the information provided, and analyses the costs to ensure that the claim hangs together.
Building upon WhisperClaims’ existing Portfolio Review tool, which helps firms understand which of their clients are likely to be eligible for R&D tax relief, the services underpin the company’s mission to help accountants and their clients successfully and effectively navigate the complexities of the scheme.
Mike adds, “HMRC has conducted several consultations around the scheme and has recognised the need to clamp down on what can only be described as ‘cowboy claims’. One of the measures they are introducing from April 2023 is that every claim submitted must be supported by a written report, signed off by the client and identifying the advisor. As regulated and accredited professionals, HMRC recognises that accountants are ideally positioned to provide this service. This is why WhisperClaims is committed to helping our clients raise the standards in R&D tax relief, by providing them with the right tools to have confidence in the process.”
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About WhisperClaims
WhisperClaims is an R&D tax fintech company based in Edinburgh. Founded in 2018, it offers award-winning R&D tax credit software and support that enables the accounting industry to deliver a comprehensive R&D tax relief service to their clients.
Since inception, WhisperClaims has so far enabled over 160 firms across the UK to process over 2200 claims worth over £310m in eligible R&D spend. Its subscriber base includes all sizes of accounting and consulting businesses, from one-man-bands to several UK Top100 firms.
The company won the ‘Best use of Innovation’ award at the 2018 UK Business Tech Awards; the ‘Emerging FinTech Company of the Year’ award at the Scottish Accountancy & Financial Technology Awards 2019; the “Non-Accounting Cloud or Banking App of the Year” award at the 2020 Accounting Excellence Awards and in October 2021 they were chosen as part of the TechNation Fintech 4.0 programme.
[i] In 2021, over 1% of all claims submitted to HMRC were processed using WhisperClaims software. To date, its users have realised over £80m in tax benefits for their clients.