Deadline Alert: R&D Pre Notification for March Year Ends
If your company has a March 2025 year-end, time is ticking. HMRC requires certain businesses to pre-notify their intention to make an R&D claim. If you miss the deadline, your claim is automatically invalid.
For March year ends, the six-month deadline is 30 September 2025.
Why has this changed?
From 1 April 2023, HMRC introduced stricter rules when claiming R&D tax relief. The aim is to crack down on abuse of the system, but its introduction has also created barriers for genuine claimants. Pre-notification is one of the biggest changes to the R&D relief scheme, with many new and existing claimants are becoming trapped by the requirement.
The rule is simple: claiming R&D relief is not an automatic right; some companies now have to tell HMRC they intend to claim before they actually submit the claim.
Who needs to pre-notify?
You must pre-notify HMRC if:
- You are claiming R&D tax relief for the first time, or
- Your last claim was made more than three years before the notification deadline.
But beware. A past claim may not count if:
- It covered a period that started before 1 April 2023, but was filed by way of an amendment to the tax return on or after that date, or
- HMRC rejected the claim and removed it from the return.
This is where many companies get caught out. They assume they are exempt, only to discover they are not.
What happens if I miss it?
If you miss the deadline, there is no opportunity to retrospectively submit the form; the claim is lost for that period and cannot be reinstated.
How to protect your claim
- Check now if you need to pre-notify.
- If you do, complete HMRC’s gForm notification before 30 September 2025.
- Speak to your advisor or contact YesTax at hello@yes.tax, or on 0114 553 7850, for a complimentary review. We will help you confirm your position and avoid the risk of losing your claim.
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