If you build software,
you may be owed money back.
UK R&D tax relief pays companies to crack hard technical problems — and most software work counts. Aven builds the defensible evidence to claim it, from the work you’ve already shipped.
The UK pays you to solve hard technical problems.
Writing software usually counts. Most teams either miss the relief — or can't defend it.
- You probably qualify
If you tackled problems with no off-the-shelf answer — scale, performance, novel features.
- It's real money
Roughly 15–16% of qualifying spend, paid as a credit or cash.
- But you must prove it
Since 2024, weak claims get challenged. Evidence is everything.
Most of that spend is salaries — engineers already on your payroll.
We do the digging. You get a defensible pack.
Three steps, mostly automated. You connect once; we turn months of scattered history into one reviewed, enquiry-ready pack.
Connect, read-only
Link GitHub read-only. We read the metadata — never your code. GitLab, Jira and Linear are planned next.
We assemble the evidence
Projects clustered, narratives drafted, every claim wired to the record — plus a conservative cost model.
Expert-reviewed, then yours
A competent professional checks it. You hand a defensible pack to your accountant.
An enquiry-ready bundle — not a marketing PDF.
Everything HMRC's Additional Information Form asks for — every claim wired to the commit, PR or ticket that proves it.
- iCompany & period header — PAYE/VAT, dates, named responsible officer
- ii3–10 candidate projects covering ≥50% of qualifying expenditure
- iiiPer project: field of tech · baseline · advance · uncertainty · approach
- ivEvidence index — every claim linked to commits, PRs and tickets
- vQualifying-expenditure model by project and category
- viCompetent-professional statement + reviewer risk flags
- viiScheme-determining data for your firm (we don't pick your scheme)
Advance & uncertainty
The team sought to reduce p99 write latency below 40 ms under non-idempotent retries — an advance a competent professional could not readily deduce from existing practice.
- Staff (apportioned)
- £312,000
- Subcontractors (65%)
- £41,600
- Cloud & data
- £28,400
- Qualifying total
- £382,000
Illustrative only. Not tax advice. Your reviewing tax firm determines the final claim, scheme and amount.
Put a number on it.
Most UK software teams underclaim — or can't defend what they do claim. Drag the sliders for a conservative, indicative range. The free check gives you the real figure.
Staff cost is the bulk of most software claims. We apply the merged-scheme net rate (15–16.2% of qualifying spend) — the same conservative range our scoring engine uses.
on roughly £260,000of qualifying staff cost, under the post-2024 merged R&D scheme.
See your real numbers — freeIndicative only. Not tax advice, not a guarantee. Aven never determines or guarantees an amount — your reviewing tax firm decides the final claim, scheme and figure.
Defensible beats optimistic.
We're onboarding our founding cohort of UK software teams now. The promise is simple: evidence that holds up, reviewed by a real expert, never inflated.
“We were already claiming, but we'd never have survived an enquiry. Aven gave us the trail to back every project.”
“It pulled the story straight out of our GitHub history. A frantic week of digging became an afternoon.”
“Defensible, not inflated — exactly what our accountant wanted to receive. The reviewer notes did half their job.”
Start free. Pay only for the pack.
The Eligibility & Readiness assessment is free — you see your scores and an indicative range before you pay anything.
Evidence Pack
A focused starter price for the first cohort: evidence assembly, cost model, narratives, and human review before delivery.
- Read-only connections + guided inputs
- AIF-aligned narratives + linked evidence index
- Qualifying-expenditure model
- Competent-professional review before delivery
- Reviewer notes prepared for your accountant
Indicative only. Not tax advice. Aven assembles evidence reviewed by a competent person; your accountant or R&D tax firm files and determines your claim, scheme and liability.
The questions that actually matter.
01Do you file my claim with HMRC?
No. Aven assembles AIF-aligned, enquiry-ready evidence reviewed by a competent professional. Your accountant or an R&D tax firm files the claim and determines your scheme, liability and amount.
02Do you store our source code?
Never. We request read-only access and ingest only commit messages, PR/ticket text and metadata — redacted at ingestion. No source code is stored.
03Is this about maximising our claim?
No. We build a defensible, conservative pack designed to survive an enquiry — not to inflate numbers. Indicative ranges err low and are clearly caveated.
04What if our notification deadline has passed?
We'll tell you, and we won't take payment for a claim whose notification window has closed. You'll see your scores and a referral to your accountant.
05Who reviews the pack?
A competent professional reviews every pack before you receive it. No pack is delivered without that human sign-off.
06Which tools do you support?
GitHub is live today, read-only. GitLab, Jira and Linear are planned next. UK companies only, for now.
See if you have a defensible claim.
The eligibility and readiness check is free, takes a few minutes, and tells you honestly whether Aven is the right fit.