Chat with us, powered by LiveChat

Jumpstart has helped its clients to reclaim nearly £100m in research and development tax relief and is now preparing to aid its customers in raising finance too. BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe catches up with the consultancy’s managing director, Brian Williamson, to find out more.

When it comes to Scotland’s fledgling space industry, carrying out research and development (R&D) is all in a day’s work. While other sectors of the economy may only be able to innovate now and again, companies working in the space sector need to come up with creative solutions to problems every day.

“Space is one of the few areas in which you can say the sky is not the limit,” says Brian Williamson, managing director of Jumpstart, an Edinburgh-based consultancy that’s at the forefront of helping companies across a broad range of sectors to claim R&D tax relief from HM Revenue & Customs.

Gordon Brown introduced R&D relief on corporation tax in 2000 when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. The scheme was designed to encourage businesses to invest in R&D. “There has to be a global advance in science and technology to allow a company to claim R&D tax relief,” explains Williamson. “Everything is so new in the space sector – in other industries, you have to stop and ask yourself ‘Has this been done before?’, but space has an almost infinite range of possibilities across size, complexity and volume.

“Over the past seven years, there’s been an acceleration in the number of advances being made. Our prediction is that, in the space industry, that acceleration is going to get even faster.” Williamson points to the ‘internet of things’, the concept that each and every piece of technology in our homes, workplaces and public spaces will be connected to the world-wide web. Already, Centrica – the owner of the British Gas and Scottish Gas brands – is offering customers the chance to use Hive, a system that allows them to control their central heating from their smartphones, turning the thermostat up remotely if they’re on the bus home and feeling a wee bit chilly

Article originally published on BQ – Business Quarter Magasine

Read the full article here

Start your R&D tax credit claim now

Meet the Jumpstart team

Jumpstart white asterisk
Jumpstart your R&D tax credits…Call us on 0844 967 2626