What about cloud computing or data licence costs?

Historically, cloud computing costs have not qualified under the Research and Development (R&D) schemes, as they do not meet the definition of a “software cost”. This has previously meant that companies have been unable to claim for R&D expenses incurred on cloud service providers such as AWS or GCP.

Fortunately, the rules have been modernised and changed for accounting periods that begin on or after 1 April 2023, allowing these costs to finally be included in R&D claims. Similarly, the costs of data sets purchased for the purpose of undertaking R&D also now qualify.