For a company to be eligible to approach the HMRC for an Advance Assurance for its R&D tax Credits or R&D Tax Relief claim, it needs to have an annual profit approximating £2 million or less. Moreover, the company is required to be an SME, with the number of employees being less than 50. It is also important that the company applying for Advance Assurance should not have made any R&D tax relief claims before.
Companies that cannot apply for the Advance Assurance facility are the ones that are a part of a group that claimed any R&D tax relief or compensation through R&D tax credits prior to the application; is subject to the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes or has been involved in activities rendering it as a corporate defaulter.