R&D Tax Credits for Architectural Practices

Select a topic you want to learn about:

• Do your architecture projects qualify?
• Typical examples of qualifying projects
• Costs that you can and cannot include in your claim
• Tips for maximising the value of your architecture claim
• Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do Your Architecture Projects Qualify?

The first stage in claiming R&D Tax relief in architecture is determining to what degree valid R&D is being performed and to assess which field of science or technology the claim would fall under.

Completed projects that took place in the previous two financial years should also be looked at because claims can be made retrospectively for that period.

Broadly speaking, if an architectural project includes any unique adaptations, non-standard elements (structural, materials used etc.) or has faced particularly difficult technical challenges, then it should be examined more closely for eligibility. HMRC sets out two main requirements for a project to be considered as R&D for tax purposes:

1.1. Seeking to achieve a technological or scientific advance

An eligible project or activity should theoretically add to the current pool of technical or scientific knowledge in architecture. The advance in knowledge would not necessarily need to involve tangible assets but can also involve design or process improvements. Note: Any intellectual property that is included in a claim would remain protected throughout the claims process and does not need to be shared publicly.

1.2. Overcoming a level of technological uncertainty

In other words, it is not known at the outset if the solution to a technical challenge was either possible, or alternatively, how in practice to achieve it. Even if someone else in the industry has already achieved the same thing, you can still potentially make a claim if the solution is not in the public domain and not obvious.

The Eligibility Threshold

In architecture, the above two criteria are often met as a result of environmental factors affecting the desired solution, such as thermal performance, structural characteristics, or specific materials and may subsequently require new and appreciably improved processes or solutions that will in turn qualify for the R&D relief.

It is also important that no non-qualifying activities are included within the claim and this is something that can often be challenging, as these are rarely tracked separately within a project. When making a case to HMRC as to why the work qualifies, we will work with you to ensure that only the eligible activities have been accurately costed and included in the claim.

Related article: Avoiding an HMRC enquiry when making an R&D claim

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2. Examples of Architectural Projects that qualify for the R&D scheme:

Below we explore just a few scenarios of how architecture firms can become eligible for the R&D tax credit scheme. If you are unsure of your eligibility or would like further information, you are welcome to contact us for an objective assessment at no obligation to you.

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3. Costs that you can and cannot include in your claim

In architectural projects typical costs that are included in an R&D claim are:

• Pro-rata salaries of employees over the period where they worked on eligible activities
• Sub-contractors hired by the architecture firm to carry out eligible activities. These could include engineering firms, environmental consultants, fire-safety experts etc.
• Costs of materials that contributed to the eligible project
• Software licences used within the bounds of the eligible activities

Costs that cannot be included are:

• The running costs of the business (rent, electrical, travel costs etc.)
• 3rd party costs that are recharged back to clients

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4. Tips for maximising the value of your architectural claims

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5. Frequently Asked Questions

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Innovation Plus have an outstanding record in successfully claiming R&D tax relief in architecture and have developed a tried and tested process that maps the industry-standard RIBA stages onto the R&D Tax legislation. In this way, we are able to use the information that you are already tracking to support and secure a successful R&D tax claim that yields the maximum value for your firm.

Contact us here if you have any questions or if you would like us to scope out your eligibility and estimated claim value, without any obligation.

Unlock R&D Tax Credits for Your Architecture Practice

Most UK architecture firms are missing out on R&D tax relief they are fully entitled to. If your team is solving complex structural, environmental, acoustic, thermal, or digital design challenges, you are very likely carrying out qualifying R&D under HMRC’s rules.

R&D in Architecture: It’s Not Just Lab Coats

R&D is not limited to laboratory research. Under the 2024 DSIT Guidelines, R&D is any work that:

Seeks an advance in science or technology by resolving scientific or technological uncertainty.

For architects, this often arises where design ambition meets technical feasibility – when standard guidance, codes, or typical details are not enough to guarantee success and your team must systematically investigate, test, and iterate to find a solution.

Typical Qualifying Activities in Architecture

Your practice may be undertaking qualifying R&D where projects involve:

• Structural innovation – Non-standard forms, spans, materials, or loading conditions that require novel structural strategies beyond standard codes and typical details.
• Environmental and sustainability design – Achieving demanding performance targets (e.g. BREEAM Outstanding, Passivhaus, net-zero carbon) where conventional solutions cannot reliably meet thermal, ventilation, or energy criteria.
• Acoustic engineering – Performance-driven design for concert halls, studios, healthcare, education, or mixed-use schemes where sound insulation, reverberation, and noise control demand innovative detailing and modelling.
• Façade and envelope innovation – Bespoke curtain wall, cladding, or glazing systems balancing thermal performance, structural integrity, airtightness, weathertightness, and aesthetics under non-standard conditions.
• Complex site solutions – Challenging ground conditions, tight urban plots, flood risk, or sensitive heritage contexts where standard approaches fail and new technical solutions must be developed.
• Fire engineering – Performance-based fire strategies, complex evacuation routes, compartmentation, or material specifications where prescriptive guidance does not adequately address the building’s complexity.
• Digital design and computation – Developing parametric tools, custom scripts, generative algorithms, or advanced BIM workflows that extend standard software capabilities to solve specific design problems.
• Material research – Applying new or unconventional materials (e.g. mass timber, bio-based products, recycled aggregates) where structural, thermal, moisture, or durability performance in your specific application is uncertain.

If your team had to ask, “Will this actually work, and how do we prove it?” and then followed a structured process of analysis, modelling, prototyping, or testing, there is a strong chance that work qualifies.

The Merged R&D Scheme: What It Means for Architects

For accounting periods starting on or after 1 April 2024, architecture firms claim under the merged R&D Expenditure Credit (RDEC) scheme:

• Credit rate: 20% of qualifying R&D expenditure
• Typical net benefit: ~15p per £1 of eligible spend (after 25% corporation tax)
• Illustration: £100,000 of qualifying R&D costs can generate around £15,000 in tax relief.

Structure matters

• Eligible: UK limited companies paying corporation tax.
• Not directly eligible: Partnerships and LLPs.

Many architecture practices have restructured from partnership/LLP to limited company – replacing partners with shareholders – specifically to access R&D relief and other corporate tax advantages.

Costs You Can Include in an R&D Claim

Within qualifying projects, you can typically include:

• Staff costs

Pro-rata salaries, employer NIC, and pension contributions for architects, technologists, engineers, and technical staff for the time they spend on qualifying R&D activities.

• Subcontractor costs

Fees paid to structural, MEP, environmental, acoustic, fire, and other specialists undertaking R&D on your behalf. (UK-based subcontractors are generally eligible, subject to a 65% restriction under the merged scheme.)

• Software licences

BIM platforms, parametric design tools, environmental and energy simulation software, structural and acoustic analysis tools, and other computational design software used in the R&D work.

• Materials and consumables

Physical models, mock-ups, test rigs, sample panels, and consumable materials used in prototyping, testing, or validation.

• Cloud computing and data

Cloud processing, storage, and relevant data costs for simulation, analysis, or rendering that form part of the R&D process (eligible from 1 April 2023).

How to Maximise Your Architecture R&D Claim

1. Review project-by-project

Not every project will contain R&D, but many will have R&D phases or work packages. Look for:

• Non-standard structural or envelope solutions
• Ambitious environmental or acoustic performance targets

Unlocking R&D Tax Credits for Architectural Practices

Architecture is one of the most under-claiming sectors in the UK R&D tax credit landscape, despite routinely tackling complex structural, environmental, and material challenges. Under the merged R&D scheme (CTA 2009, Part 3, Chapter 1A), architectural firms can now claim an R&D expenditure credit (RDEC) at 20% of qualifying expenditure for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024.

If your practice is solving problems that a competent architect or engineer could not readily resolve at the outset, there is a strong chance you are undertaking qualifying R&D — even if you do not label it as such.

What Counts as R&D in Architecture?

Under the DSIT Guidelines (CIRD81900), qualifying R&D is work that:

1. Seeks an advance in science or technology – contributing to knowledge or capability in areas such as:

• Design methodology
• Structural performance
• Material application
• Environmental performance
• Construction processes (CIRD81300)

1. Overcomes technological uncertainty – where it was not known in advance whether the desired outcome was achievable, or how to achieve it in practice (CIRD81400). Even if similar solutions exist elsewhere, your work can still qualify if those solutions were not publicly available or readily deducible.

This does not require academic research. It is about solving real-world technical problems that go beyond routine professional competence.

Typical Qualifying Activities in Architectural Projects

R&D in architecture often arises where projects involve non-standard, high-risk, or highly constrained design requirements. Common qualifying areas include:

• Structural innovation – long-span roofs, large cantilevers, complex load paths, or foundations on difficult ground where behaviour cannot be reliably predicted using standard calculations.
• Thermal and environmental performance – building envelopes, passive design strategies, and integrated systems to meet demanding standards (e.g. Passivhaus, net-zero) where system interactions create genuine uncertainty.
• Novel material applications – use of CLT, bio-based materials, recycled aggregates, or hybrid systems where structural, durability, or compatibility performance is not established.
• Acoustic engineering – solutions for concert halls, performance spaces, open-plan offices, or mixed-use schemes where modelling alone cannot reliably predict real-world acoustic performance.
• Fire engineering – performance-based fire strategies for unusual geometries, mixed uses, or complex evacuation routes where prescriptive guidance is inadequate.
• Façade engineering – complex façades that must simultaneously satisfy structural, thermal, acoustic, weather, and aesthetic requirements, with significant interaction between components.
• Adaptive reuse and heritage – interventions to listed or heritage buildings where unknown existing conditions require novel structural or environmental solutions.
• Computational design – development of parametric tools, generative algorithms, or advanced BIM workflows that extend the capabilities of standard software.
• Sustainable drainage and landscape integration – SUDS, blue/green roofs, and landscape systems managing water, structure, ecology, and user requirements in combination.

Activities That Do Not Qualify

Routine professional work, even if highly skilled, is excluded. Examples include:

• Standard concept and detailed design where known methods are simply applied
• Planning applications and statutory approvals
• Client liaison and presentations
• Project management and contract administration
• Producing construction information where no technological uncertainty is being resolved

Only the specific strands of work aimed at resolving technological uncertainty should be included in an R&D claim.

Where R&D Sits Within the RIBA Plan of Work

Qualifying R&D activities in architecture frequently occur across:

• RIBA Stage 2 – Concept Design: exploring fundamentally different structural, environmental, or material strategies where feasibility is uncertain.
• RIBA Stage 3 – Spatial Coordination: iterative testing and refinement of solutions to resolve performance, buildability, and compliance uncertainties.
• RIBA Stage 4 – Technical Design: detailed development, modelling, and prototyping to prove that the chosen solution will work in practice.
• RIBA Stage 5 – Manufacturing & Construction (where applicable): on-site problem solving and further design development when unexpected conditions or performance issues arise.

At Innovation Plus, we map these RIBA stages directly to the statutory R&D criteria, using your existing documentation (models, calculations, meeting notes, correspondence with consultants) to evidence the uncertainties, the systematic work undertaken, and the advances achieved.

Eligible Costs Under the Merged Scheme

Under CTA 2009, s1044, typical qualifying costs for architectural R&D include:

• Staff costs
• Salaries, employer NICs, and pension contributions for architects, technologists, and designers
• Time must be pro-rated to the qualifying R&D activities only
• Subcontractor and externally provided worker costs
• Structural, environmental, façade, fire, and acoustic consultants, and other technical specialists engaged in resolving the technological uncertainties
• Subject to the 65% restriction for unconnected subcontractors under the merged scheme
• Consumable materials
• Materials used in prototypes, mock-ups, test rigs, or trial installations that are consumed or transformed during the R&D process
• Software licences
• Specialist tools used directly in R&D: structural analysis, CFD, thermal and daylight modelling, parametric design, advanced BIM, and simulation platforms
• Cloud computing and data costs
• Cloud-based simulation, rendering, or analysis environments used in qualifying R&D activities

Costs You Cannot Include

• General overheads (rent, utilities, insurance)
• Business development, marketing, and bid work
• Planning and building control fees
• Routine project management and administration
• Standard construction documentation where no technological uncertainty exists

Practice Structure: Partnerships vs Companies

The UK R&D tax relief regime applies only to entities within the corporation tax net. This means:

• Limited companies can claim R&D tax credits.
• Partnerships and LLPs cannot claim directly.

Many architectural partnerships have chosen to incorporate to access R&D relief. Any restructuring should be considered carefully with your accountant; we can support that discussion from an R&D perspective.

The Merged RDEC Scheme: What It Means for Architects

From 1 April 2024, the merged RDEC scheme provides:

• A 20% R&D expenditure credit on qualifying costs.
• A consistent mechanism for both SMEs and large companies.
• For profitable firms, the credit primarily reduces the corporation tax bill.
• For loss-making or early-stage firms, a payable credit can provide valuable cash flow.

Overseas Subcontracting

Under CTA 2009, s1046A, from 1 April 2024, costs of overseas subcontractors generally do not qualify, unless specific conditions apply (for example, where geographical, environmental, or regulatory factors mean the work genuinely cannot be carried out in the UK). This is particularly relevant where overseas structural or environmental consultants are engaged.

Common Pitfalls in Architectural R&D Claims

• Claiming too broadly
• Including routine design and project management time alongside genuine R&D weakens the claim and increases enquiry risk.
• Qualifying activities must be clearly separated and time-apportioned.
• Weak technical narratives
• HMRC expects a structured explanation of:

Why Architectural Practices Work With Innovation Plus

Architecture is one of the most under-claimed sectors for R&D tax relief. Many generalist advisers either miss qualifying architectural R&D entirely or over-claim by treating standard design work as innovation.

We take a different approach:

• We understand architecture. Our team works with architectural practices across residential, commercial, heritage, and infrastructure projects. We know where genuine technological uncertainty arises in building design — and where it does not.
• We write technically robust narratives. Every claim includes a structured technical report that links your design and engineering work to specific scientific or technological uncertainties, using language HMRC expects to see.
• We don't over-claim. Architectural R&D claims face increasing HMRC scrutiny. We build claims that are defensible under enquiry, not claims designed to impress at the point of sale.
• We work on a success-fee basis. No upfront costs. You only pay when your claim succeeds.
• We support you if HMRC enquires. Our enquiry defence service is included as standard.

Next Step: Get an Honest Assessment

If your practice tackles projects involving novel structural solutions, challenging environmental performance targets, complex facade engineering, innovative materials, or difficult site conditions, there is a strong chance you have a valid R&D tax claim.

Contact us for a free, no-obligation assessment. We will tell you honestly whether your work qualifies — and if it does, we will handle the entire claim process.

No upfront fees. No inflated claims. Just rigorous, compliant R&D tax advice for architecture.