SME printers and printing equipment manufacturers could be in line for a tax boost as a result of changes to the tax relief rules for research and development (R&D).
Under the new system, SMEs carrying out R&D will be able to claim additional tax relief, even if they won’t own the resulting intellectual property (IP).
FFEI managing director Andy Cook said that the changes mainly addressed the issue of contracted R&D efforts.
He added: "At FFEI we often receive full or partial funding from partners for technology development work. Under the current rules these projects are excluded from the tax credit scheme.
"A good example would be FFEI’s development of some software products on behalf of Fujifilm, which is funded by them on a non-profit basis. Because this creates IP that is not owned by FFEI we cannot include it in our credit calculation.
"We have always found this strange because the effort benefits FFEI as a UK company, employs UK staff and builds our overall know how. I think this new change is a logical thing for the government to do."
HMRC said that the new rules, which follow a report from leading design engineer and entrepreneur James Dyson, have been introduced as part of the government's plan to help Britain become a leading high-tech exporter in Europe.
The SME scheme is open to organisations with fewer than 500 employees, an annual turnover of less than 100m euros (£83.5m) and a balance sheet not exceeding 86m euros. Annual spend on R&D must be a minimum of £10,000.
It is not known whether the scheme will apply to printers acting as beta test partners to UK or overseas manufacturers.
"I suppose beta testing might apply, but suspect capturing the costs might be tough," said Cook.
"The printer would also need to be spending money on R&D and not many really do that apart from the big players, who aren’t eligible.
"The real benefits will be to the suppliers into the print industry, who hopefully will find it more beneficial to take on ‘at cost’ development activities."
The new rule to any expenditure by SMEs on R&D will apply to the accounting period ending on or after 9 December 2009.
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