If your company has filed a Research & Development tax credit claim, the benefit is often already baked into your plans — but HMRC does not pay it the day you submit. The claim sits in a processing queue, and the cash you have earmarked for the next phase of work can be weeks or months away. A Credicorp facility lets a UK limited company or LLP bridge that interval, keep the project moving, and repay once the credit is paid out.
Why R&D claims create a timing gap
An R&D tax credit is claimed after the relevant accounting period, through your Company Tax Return. Even a clean claim takes time to work through HMRC, and the department can open an enquiry or ask for more detail before it releases anything. So you have a known benefit on paper, but no money in the bank yet — while staff, prototypes, software and lab or workshop costs keep falling due now. That mismatch between an approved-but-unpaid claim and live spending is exactly what bridging finance is for.
What "advance funding against an R&D claim" really means
Bridging an R&D claim does not mean borrowing against a guess. It means using a short-term business facility to cover a defined gap where you are genuinely confident of the incoming benefit, then clearing it when HMRC pays. The lending is to the company on its own merits — we underwrite your trading and affordability, not the claim itself — so the credit landing is your repayment plan, not our security. There is no director personal guarantee.
How the facility works
- Apply as a UK limited company or LLP, stating the business purpose of bridging an expected R&D tax credit.
- We assess your company's trading and affordability and, if we can help, set out the term and rate in an offer document. We never quote a price before underwriting.
- You draw the funds and keep the project on track — paying the people and suppliers the work depends on.
- When HMRC settles the claim, you repay over the agreed term, with the credit doing the heavy lifting.
Borrow against the claim with caution
Only bridge against a benefit you are genuinely confident of receiving, and leave headroom in case HMRC pays later than hoped or queries part of the claim. Treat your tax adviser's view of the likely figure and timing as the anchor, and make sure your forecast can carry the repayments even if the credit slips. Choose between Credicorp Flex and Credicorp Slice based on which repayment shape suits your cash cycle.
Credicorp lends only to UK limited companies and LLPs for business purposes. We do not lend to individuals or sole traders, and we take no personal guarantee from directors. As an exempt business lender we sit outside the FCA consumer-credit regime, so the Financial Ombudsman Service and FSCS do not apply.
Related reading
- Bridging while you wait for a grant or R&D tax credit — the broader version covering grant funding too.
- Can I use Credicorp to pay a Corporation Tax bill? — the other side of the same return.
- Can business finance help bridge a short-term cashflow gap? — the general timing-gap picture.
- Funding working capital — keeping day-to-day operations funded while you wait.
See also: Bridging a late CIS or VAT refund, Bridging the gap between one contract ending and the next starting, Bridging the gap between one contract ending and the next.