Research and development (R&D) tax incentives offer tax savings, and often, cash refunds for businesses investing in innovation.  Across different global jurisdictions, there is often a similar definition of qualifying R&D activities.  However, the specifics of regimes and how companies can monetise these benefits vary significantly. Benefits range from offsetting social security expenses and offering income tax relief, to permitting qualifying R&D to be accounted for within a company’s EBITDA.

Identifying and claiming opportunities — tax credits, super deductions, patent/ innovation boxes, direct government grants, et al. — in an efficient and effective manner requires extensive local expertise and experience with the legal, regulatory, and judicial regimes that offer, administer, and adjudicate them.

Some companies may have this expertise and experience in house. However, most do not so they either engage R&D professionals in individual countries or leave potentially significant opportunities uninvestigated.

BDO’s Global R&D tax credits and incentives professionals help companies assess R&D tax eligibility locally, by jurisdiction, and/or collectively, at the global level. We bring together the best of the BDO network - a strong team of skilled R&D professionals across the world - to help clients to identify opportunities and coordinate claiming R&D tax incentives globally.

A global approach maximises the return on investment for companies whose R&D-related activities both span more than one country and meet one or more of the below criteria:

Whilst many businesses engage one BDO member firm, for international groups we can be most powerful in reviewing incentives at a global level.  The benefits of our international coordinated claims include:

• Assessing multi-jurisdictional projects once – We know international businesses often bring together the best teams to undertake R&D across different locations and legal entities.  We coordinate globally so the R&D activities are assessed once and relevant R&D claims are evaluated for the relevant costs.
• Managing processes centrally – Strong risk and project management is critical. Our team can coordinate engagements to ensure all global deadlines are met for the preparation of information – whether for consolidated accounts, forecasting or interims – are met in addition to claim evidence procedures are streamlined and consistent.
• Identifying new opportunities – The more integrated our BDO R&D experts are within your teams globally the more R&D activities we can help you identify and claim.
• Planning ahead – As you consider the impact of future investments or changes in structure, considering R&D tax implications as part of forecasting, provides a more accurate net cost or benefit to the business and thus, positioning your company to make more informed business decisions.

Our team of engineers, scientists, software developers, lawyers and financial consultants will provide you with the knowledge and expertise to access all of the available incentives as effectively as possible.

Global R&D – an interactive tool

R&D tax relief is available in a host of jurisdictions around the world. To find out more about the different R&D incentives available globally, BDO has developed an interactive tool.  Our interactive tool provides a high-level summary of the rates available in many global locations as well as a simple means of comparison between these key jurisdictions.

go to the tool

Our local R&D support

Our local teams can provide specific advice and support regarding local incentives.  To talk to your local BDO R&D tax professional, please visit the BDO web site for your country.