Reclaim R&D
tax relief.
UK software companies may be owed money back for qualifying R&D. Aven turns the engineering you’ve already shipped into defensible evidence for your accountant.
Most software work already qualifies. The gap is proof.
If your engineers solved problems with no off-the-shelf answer, that work can qualify for UK R&D relief. The work is rarely the problem - the evidence is.
R&D tax relief UK companies claimed from HMRC in 2023-24.
R&D claims made that year - a lot of qualifying software work still goes unclaimed.
The headline merged-scheme credit rate your tax firm applies to qualifying spend.
The share of unconnected subcontractor and external-worker cost that can qualify.
Sources: HMRC Research and Development Tax Credits Statistics (September 2025, tax year 2023-24). Software, data and cloud costs can qualify from 1 April 2023; the Additional Information Form has been mandatory since 8 August 2023. Not tax advice.
Does your engineering count as R&D?
HMRC rewards work that resolves genuine technical uncertainty - the kind a skilled professional couldn’t readily solve from what’s already known. For software teams, that’s often:
- Scaling a system past where known approaches break.
- Novel algorithms, ML/AI work, or hard distributed-systems problems.
- Integrations the documentation doesn't cover, needing real experimentation.
- Reliability, performance or security targets that took genuine trial and error.
Three steps. One defensible pack.
Connect once; we do the digging. After the free check, choose a lower-cost accountant draft or add expert review for a stronger hand-off.
- 01
Connect, read-only
Authorise GitHub, GitLab, Jira or Linear. We read commit, PR and ticket text and metadata only - never your source code.
- 02
We assemble the evidence
We reconstruct the advance, the uncertainty and the approach - each linked to the exact commits, PRs and tickets that prove it.
- 03
Choose your level of review
Use the lower-cost draft if your accountant will review it. Add expert review when you want clearer explanations and weak-area flags.
Aven never files with HMRC, chooses your scheme or signs off your claim.
One pack. Every claim line traceable to the work.
Not a generic report - a structured evidence bundle your accountant can act on: what happened, why it may qualify, and exactly where the proof lives.
The team set out to cut p99 write latency under non-idempotent retry pressure - a result not readily deducible by a skilled professional in the field.
- Staff
- £312,000
- Subcontractors
- £41,600
- Cloud & data
- £28,400
Technical narratives
Advance, uncertainty and approach, written to the HMRC Additional Information Form structure.
Linked evidence trail
Every claim wired back to the exact commit, PR or ticket that proves it.
Qualifying-expenditure model
A conservative cost model across the categories HMRC recognises.
Accountant hand-off
A PDF and CSV your accountant can review before filing.
Illustrative figures. Your pack reflects your own engineering history; your reviewing tax firm determines the final claim, scheme and amount.
Experts reduce the risk.
Upgrade when you want an R&D specialist to sharpen the story and flag weak points before your accountant reviews the pack.
- Technical uncertainty is clearly explained
- Narratives are backed by linked evidence
- Weak or risky areas are flagged before hand-off
See what you keep after fees.
Move the sliders for a deliberately low-balled, indicative range. It is not a quote and not tax advice - it's a reason to check your eligibility properly.
Aven does not determine your liability, select your scheme, or guarantee any amount - that’s your tax firm’s role. Final figures depend on an expert’s review.
Based on £260,000 of indicative qualifying staff cost and Aven’s conservative post-2024 merged-scheme range. Your tax firm selects the scheme and determines the final claim. It is not a quote.
The things serious teams ask first.
Q01Who is Aven for?
UK software companies whose engineers tackled genuine technical uncertainty - performance, architecture, scaling, data, reliability or similar hard problems.
Q02What do I get after the free check?
If your answers show a defensible path, you can choose a draft evidence pack for your accountant or add expert review for a stronger hand-off.
Q03Do you access or store our source code?
Never. Integrations are read-only - we pull commit, PR and ticket text and metadata only, encrypted at rest, and you can disconnect anytime.
Q04Is this automated?
Aven organises the engineering history automatically. You can then choose whether to add human expert review before sending the pack to your accountant.
Q05Will the numbers be inflated?
No. We're defensible, not maximised. Indicative figures are deliberately conservative ranges. Nothing here is a guarantee, and nothing here is tax advice.
Q06What's the pre-notification deadline?
For most claims you must notify HMRC within six months of your accounting period end. Miss it and the claim is forfeited - if your window has closed we'll tell you and won't take payment.
Q07Do you file my claim with HMRC?
No. Aven assembles defensible evidence for your accountant or R&D tax firm. Filing, liability, scheme selection and loss relief remain their responsibility.
See whether your work is defensible.
A free Eligibility & Readiness assessment - read-only, no card, no commitment. UK companies only.
UK only · read-only · source code never stored · not tax advice