Haines Watts helps unlock £50m of cash for UK businesses

Haines Watts, national chartered accountants and business advisors, has announced it has helped unlock £50m of cash “locked” in UK businesses.

The firm said the cash injection has supported businesses operating in manufacturing, gaming, construction and more, helping to sustain them through one of the “most difficult trading years the UK industry has ever faced”.

Businesses include a construction company, where in under two months of working with Haines Watts, the team identified £1m worth of reliefs going back two years which they were able to backdate and claim.

With £500k of that landing at the start of 2020, that money was able to go straight back into the business as working capital, with the company describing it as a “perfectly timed windfall”.

Jonathan Scott, tax partner at Haines Watts, said: “Over the last year business confidence has hit some all-time lows and as we now plan for 2021 there is still a lot of uncertainty. Lots of business owners are anxious as they look at Government support options and potential reforms to the tax system.

“However, businesses could potentially get back five-figure sums in overpaid tax, or in backdated reliefs that they’ve not yet claimed and the amounts involved could be the difference between a business failing to weather the storm and future success.”

He added: “I’m speaking to a lot of business owners who are struggling. In lots of cases the business hasn’t explored or maximised all of the support that’s available to them, especially through tax reliefs and incentives.

“Since the pandemic started, we have helped clients to reclaim an average of £66,000 in research and development reliefs per company and across all reliefs and sectors, more than £50m in for businesses in 2020 alone.”