R&D tax relief for aerospace and defence

Jenny is one of the UK’s leading R&D tax policy experts having specialised in the field since 2007. A highly skilled chartered accountant with almost 20 years of experience, she leads client-facing teams and helps us deliver high quality advice to clients and is a respected and influential voice within the industry.

Throughout her career, which includes over a decade spent with KPMG, Jenny has worked on R&D tax relief claims for some of the UK’s best-known innovators, ranging from big pharma companies to F1 teams and household FMCG brands.

Jenny has actively contributed to numerous groups involved in the operation of R&D tax reliefs, R&D tax policy and the future of the incentive. In her role as ForrestBrown’s Head of Policy, she has worked with the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), Nesta’s Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre and the Confederation of British Industry to inform responses to the government’s wide-ranging consultation on R&D tax reliefs and shape thinking on the future of the incentive.

She also helped to secure a significant victory for one of ForrestBrown’s clients in the first-tier tribunal, challenging HMRC’s interpretation of subsidised R&D expenditure.

Jenny is a regular author of technical articles, as well as contributing commentary on R&D tax in Tolley’s 2021 Finance Act Handbook and joining the judging panel for Tolley’s Taxation Awards 2022.

Passionate about raising professional standards for R&D tax advice, Jenny initiated a cross-industry working group that drafted the Professional Conduct in Relation to Tax (PCRT) guidance for R&D tax advice, led by the CIOT and the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT). This has been endorsed by all major UK accountancy and tax bodies and sets the standard for professionally qualified R&D tax advisers, which in turn ensures that UK businesses can access R&D tax relief with confidence. 

Jenny brings insight from these high-profile roles to benefit ForrestBrown’s clients, helping businesses maximise the benefit of their investment in innovation while minimising risks to cashflow and reputation.

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.

James leads our tax advisory practice as well as client-facing teams in the R&D tax credit practice. He provides award-winning R&D tax relief expertise to businesses and accountants on a consultative basis, as well as helping to realise the benefits of innovation through the Patent Box. This can include risk assessing in-house claim methodologies, help with setting up or improving processes for identifying and recording R&D projects within a business, or support to resolve an enquiry through ForrestBrown’s specialist HMRC enquiry support service.

His extensive experience with HMRC allows him to provide an incisive legal perspective when deciding upon initial strategy and in pursuing the best possible outcome for clients. This has led to some ground-breaking results, including a landmark victory in a first-tier tribunal challenging HMRC’s interpretation of subsidised expenditure.

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.

Mike is an expert in structural and mechanical engineering with more than 35 years of industry experience. Part of our sector specialist team, his knowledge helps to ensure we deliver technically robust R&D tax credit claims.

For Mike, it all started at Imperial College where he studied Mechanical Engineering with a special focus on structures and polymers.

He then spent much of his career working in ports, harbours and offshore, building a niche specialism in the ship-to-shore interfaces. His career has spanned the Middle East, Asia, North America and Europe.

Mike has a wealth of experience with materials and structures in some of the harshest environments. This has given him a clear understanding of how their nuances are explored during critical problem-solving phases of the R&D process – something which our clients value highly.

He has worked on many high-profile projects, including the CaTRo project in Kazakhstan for Chevron. This involved designing some of the facilities for the precision navigation of large barges along a purpose-built 80km canal in the Caspian Sea.

He has co-founded his own successful engineering company which was later acquired by Swedish industrial giant Trelleborg. After various engineering roles over the next decade, Mike became an independent consultant providing forensic engineering expert witness services to the port and shipping sectors. He joined the ForrestBrown team in 2019.

Mike is ForrestBrown’s renewables specialist and works with our industry partners in the energy sector to bring the value of R&D tax relief to their members. Whether it’s in writing blog articles (such as for Maritime Journal and Construction Industry News) or hosting webinars, Mike’s passion for R&D in this sector shines through when helping businesses gain more value from their innovative work.

Mike’s passion for R&D extends outside of his professional career too. Never afraid of an ambitious task, he project managed the building of his own eco home on the Severn Estuary. Over the course of a year, this immersed him in another sphere of R&D, allowing him to acquire further invaluable knowledge which he also brings to his role at ForrestBrown.

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.

Robin is an accomplished mechanical engineer who has worked for some of the world’s most iconic companies. With two decades of industry experience, his knowledge is integral to optimising engineering claims.

After studying Automotive Engineering at the University of Leeds, Robin began his career with a Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry. He spent five years at this manufacturer developing sealing systems for companies including Toyota, Honda and Aston Martin.

He moved to Bentley Motors and broadened his experience to whole closure systems, including bonnets, doors and tailgates. During this time Robin worked on vehicle projects such as the Mulsanne, Flying Spur, Bentayga and continental GT.

Ten years on, Robin moved to Dyson to work on their electric vehicle project, where he was the engineering manager for closures. As part of this role he managed a large team and had ownership of the body test facility. Several uniquely innovative designs were produced, including several registered for patents.

Robin not only helps our engineering clients, but also works with our wider network of automotive and mechanical engineering industry associations. As a member of the Niche Vehicle Network, Robin draws on his industry experience to support fellow members on the value of their R&D projects; speaking on webinars, joining networking events and participating in sharing insights in industry publications, such as his piece in Automotive Testing Technology International. 

Robin brings this wealth of mechanical and electromechanical engineering experience to ForrestBrown. As one of our sector specialists, he helps client companies to articulate precisely where the activities which qualify for R&D tax relief occur. Robins helps to ensure that the technical part of each claim is robust. 

Emily is a member of our research consultant team. She has a background in engineering. She uses this expertise to communicate technically complex R&D projects to HMRC.

A graduate of the University of the West of England, Emily cut her teeth working on large manufacturing projects with engineering companies like Network Rail and Renishaw. She also spent some time at UWE, running laboratory experiments and teaching fluid dynamic principles to students.

At ForrestBrown, Emily utilises her engineering expertise to help clients identify the scope of their qualifying R&D activity. She also acts as a conduit between our clients’ technical teams and our tax specialists.