Enquiry support service for HMRC R&D tax relief enquiries

James leads our tax advisory practice, FB Consulting, providing award-winning R&D tax relief expertise to businesses and accountants. This can include modelling and forecasting, risk profiling and benchmarking, and advice on compliance and methodology for large corporates.

With a legal background and extensive experience dealing with HMRC, James brings incisive insights to tax disputes, developing strategies to achieve the best possible outcome for clients. For example, he successfully led ForrestBrown’s support for Quinn (London) Limited in a 2021 landmark tribunal case challenging the interpretation of subsidised R&D expenditure.

James and the FB Consulting team provide specialist advice, working alongside a company’s general advisers, including due diligence relating to R&D tax relief pre and post transactions and R&D in complex, international groups.

A solicitor who specialises in tax advice for corporates and individuals, with a focus on cross-border and international issues, James trained and qualified at a top London law firm before relocating to Geneva to help set up the firm’s Swiss office. On returning to the UK James worked in the tax team of a leading Bristol and London-based law firm, before joining ForrestBrown in 2019.

James has contributed commentary on R&D tax relief and tax disputes to publications including Bloomberg Law and International Tax Review.

Jayne is an experienced chartered accountant with Big Four experience, who has worked in both the UK and Middle East. She is a senior adviser in FB Consulting, ForrestBrown’s specialist tax advisory service. 

Jayne joined ForrestBrown in 2020 and brings a wealth of experience in leading complex tax advisory projects, which helps her provide invaluable advice to our clients. She also plays a key role in assessing and managing tax risks and leading client relationships with HMRC.

Drawing on her science background, she takes particular interest in the pharmaceutical and medical sectors. In her role with ForrestBrown, Jayne is focused on developing our advisory services to help more businesses across the UK benefit from R&D tax relief. This includes working with clients and accountants to create robust claims and providing strategic advice or specialist support should HMRC open an enquiry.

After completing a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield, Jayne began her career with Deloitte in 2006. She was based in the entrepreneurial business tax practice and studied for her ACA qualification.

In 2010, she moved to Dubai to help establish Deloitte’s international tax practice for the Middle East region. She managed a diverse portfolio of clients including large multinationals, owner-managed companies and startups.

With a growing interest in innovation, Phil joined ForrestBrown in 2014 to work with our manufacturing and engineering clients. He trained at Cooper Parry in Nottingham and qualified as a chartered tax adviser in 2009. Phil then moved to Burton Sweet and later Hazlewoods, where he advised owner-managed businesses on personal and corporate taxation. He brings over a decade of experience to our team.

Mark is a former HMRC tax inspector with more than four decades of experience. That includes time working as an inspector in HMRC’s R&D units, providing Mark with indispensable insight on the implementation of the incentive.

Joining HMRC in 1979, Mark went on to specialise in conducting enquiries into companies. He was one of the original tax inspectors assigned to the specialist R&D units in 2006, working in the Croydon unit until 2018.

He joined ForrestBrown in 2019 and his expertise is primarily shared through our enquiry support service, which provides support to clients as well as companies who have prepared claims themselves or through another adviser or partner.

The wealth of experience gained through the combination of public and private sector roles has proved invaluable so far. He helps reassure ForrestBrown’s clients, providing them with a measured viewpoint and advice on their risk profile.

Part of Mark’s drive is the challenge of debating technical issues involving the law. That includes working on Quinn’s landmark tribunal case, which tackled HMRC’s interpretation of the amount of relief available to SMEs for customer-led R&D projects.

In addition to his work in enquiry support, Mark contributes to our in-house development programme, the Learning Lab, which aims to create the next generation of tax professionals. 

Find out about a typical day for Mark Andrew in our meet the expert series.

Tom is a software expert at the cutting-edge of technical innovation and HMRC policy. One of our sector specialists at ForrestBrown, his knowledge and experience is invaluable in optimising software claims.

He sat on the HMRC subcommittee that issues software guidance for R&D tax relief. As such, the team utilises his extensive expertise to ensure we deliver robust and accurate advice to our clients.

With a Master’s degree in Medical Image Computing from University College London, Tom has a deep understanding of image processing techniques. He can apply mathematical and statistical formulae to large datasets and machine learning. 

Tom also has experience and knowledge of common software design patterns. Specifically, MATLAB, C#, C++, Python, R!, JavaScript, HTML, SQL, SSRS.

On top of extensive experience in the R&D tax relief industry, Tom has held a range of technical positions spanning various industries. In e-learning he engineered tools to aid international broadcast of lectures. In medical technology he helped develop an online CBT tool to help manage unhealthy lifestyle habits.

Tom also uses his industry insight to improve the future of R&D tax reliefs for the software industry. Not only does he work with our clients to represent their views in response to R&D consultations, he also communicates key information to our clients on technical webinars and in key content such as his work in IT Pro Portal, Tech Monitor, SME Web and Business Leader publications.

Working with the FB Consulting team, Tom brings this experience to tax disputes involving complex software development. He is able to express highly technical R&D claims in a clear and compelling way and is passionate about helping science and technology firms optimise their funding to drive innovation.

Peter’s experience ranges from getting a PhD and MSci in Chemistry and improving confectionery shelf-life to the invention of a patented elastomeric material for improved radiation stability.

His career started with a role as a chocolate scientist at Mars. That was followed by a move to the defence sector, where he finished a nine-year stint as a Senior Materials Scientist at the Atomic Weapons Establishment.

During that period, he authored numerous scientific papers and spoke at international conferences on the synthesis and characterisation of novel polymers and materials. With ForrestBrown, Peter has also been published in The Manufacturer, The Medicine Maker, Interplas Insights, and the Confectionery Production publications.

That scientific and technical capability allows him to quickly understand, challenge and assess clients’ work against the R&D tax credit guidelines. And, it’s seeing the projects companies are able to fund due to the value of their claims – and the excitement they have – that’s driving him.

At ForrestBrown, Peter provides expert peer-to-peer communication for our clients on their technical projects, helping to translate their work into reports for HMRC. Examples of his work include reviewing a claim prepared by a Big Four accountancy firm – and significantly increasing the value of R&D tax relief to their business.

Pete works with our network of associations in the food and drink sector, using his background at Mars as a chocolate scientist to help businesses identify their hidden R&D in this industry. Supporting the activities of our partnerships team, Pete speaks at events, networks with businesses and hosts webinars with industry partners to raise awareness of the value of working with ForrestBrown’s expert multi-disciplinary team to access this valuable incentive.

With an infectious passion for all things science and materials, you can talk to Peter about pharma, food and drink, materials (adhesives, polymers and manufacturing) and engineering sectors.