National Creativity Day #NationalCreativityDay - Rewarding creativity and innovation with R&D Tax Credits

Today is #NationalCreativityDay! As specialists working daily with companies that qualify for R&D Tax Relief, helping reward creativity is our job. After every successful case, our favourite thing to see is the mass extent that the R&D Tax Relief has aided our clients' business in their creative and innovative ventures for the future. 

The goal behind government funded R&D Tax Credits is to further strengthen science, research, and innovation across the UK, making them central to tackling the major challenges we face, and taking advantage of opportunities.

Although ‘science and research’ and ‘creativity’ are often polarised in practice, at Recoup, we like to acknowledge that innovation and creativity actually go hand in hand. In essence, overcoming compromising problems requires creative solutions. For example, it takes a very specialist creative to make something as amazing as Neon Creations’ designs! 

Let’s take a look at how we showed them that such creativity within their businesses would successfully qualify for R&D Tax Relief…

With over seventy years combined experience in the neon sign industry, Neon Creations are masters of their craft. For almost sixteen years, the family-run company has been designing bespoke neon signs, lights, and art, all of which are manufactured in their own workshops. That sounds like prime creativity and innovation to us! We were proved right when we discovered that there were plenty of activities in which the investment could be recouped through an R&D Tax Claim.  

One significant factor is the way that Neon Creations are continually reinventing how the hundred-year-old industry is perceived. Most of the time, neon technology is used to build signs. Tony and Catherine however were keen to branch out and explore the creation of neon art.  

For example, they were recently approached by Capcom, a Japanese video game developer and publisher. Capcom has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, including Resident Evil and Devil May Cry.  

 Capcom wanted Neon Creations to come up with designs for its Devil May Cry 5 merchandise. To do so, Tony spent a lot of time exploring different concepts, using creative and innovative methods to bring his ideas to life.  

 It was the trial and error of coming up with an idea, designing it on software, creating the product and seeing if it worked that pushed these activities into R&D territory.  

 Moreover, Tony designed and created neon art for an exhibition at a Manchester gallery in November 2017. He also submitted creative pieces for the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Arts Prize in 2019. In the end, these types of projects were all eligible for R&D tax relief.  

 So, you can see from this successful case study in R&D rewarding creativity that Government-perceived R&D is not in fact exclusive to scientists in white lab coats. Instead, creatives like Tony and Christine ended up being rewarded £30,000 in R&D Tax Credits for their work. 

 Are you a Creative and feel like you relate to this case study? 

 Like Neon Creations, if your business has been undertaking innovative activities to overcome challenges and further your industry, you’ll likely qualify for R&D Tax Relief.  

 To get a concrete answer, use our Eligibility Checker or call us directly on 0800 3277514