I am advised by Revenue that the numbers of companies availing of the research and development tax credit in the years 2010 to 2016, the latest year available, is shown in the table below. The number of companies shown for each year includes companies offsetting the credit against their profits for the year and also companies with refundable tax credits in the year. Please note that information for 2016 is provisional and subject to change.
Number of Companies availing of R&D Tax Credit
Year
|
Less than or equal to 10 employees
|
11 and 49 employees
|
50 to 249 employees
|
250 employees or more
|
2010
|
428
|
394
|
252
|
98
|
2011
|
505
|
497
|
292
|
115
|
2012
|
549
|
554
|
313
|
127
|
2013
|
549
|
584
|
326
|
117
|
2014
|
528
|
563
|
341
|
138
|
2015
|
502
|
560
|
330
|
143
|
2016 (Provisional)
|
447
|
530
|
327
|
152
|
The source of the information is the Corporation Tax return matched against employer returns. As company structures are sometimes organised in such a way that employees are paid by one company in a group, it may appear that a company has low numbers (or no) employees but actually the employees are employed by a different company within the group.