Software

“The reality is many companies feel as if they need to be the next Google and develop cutting edge technology to access R&D Tax Credits. Little to their knowledge, the R&D scheme requires a company to 'overcome technical uncertainties' whilst 'seeking an advance in science or technology'. Therefore, it is a lot broader than what people think. At BourkeHood, we are on a mission to deliver and simplify this process to as many companies as possible.”

Software development is an industry in its own right as well as an enabler of other industries. If you are in an industry such as manufacturing, mining or technology, and you develop software to facilitate your R&D, then this content will also be of interest to you.

Qualifying areas include:
• Development of new operating systems or languages, plugins, updates, program versions, etc.
• Design of new search engines based on original technologies.
• Efforts to resolve conflicts within hardware or software based on the process of re-engineering a system or a network.
• Creation of new or more efficient algorithms based on new techniques or approaches.
• Creation of new and original encryption or cybersecurity techniques.
• Modifications and improvements to an existing code.

While it will depend on the facts in each case, examples of activities that are not eligible as core R&D activities because they generally are not being conducted as experiments to test a hypothesis are listed below. These activities may be eligible as supporting R&D activities if they directly support an eligible core R&D activity: bug testing (identifying and fixing errors in code), beta testing, user acceptance testing, system & requirements testing, data mapping and data migration testing, and more.