Back in 1911, the Morton Salt Company developed a new breakthrough in table salt technology - they found that by adding a small amount of magnesium carbonate to a smaller grain size of salt, it wouldn’t cake and clump when rainy weather made the air in a house even slightly humid. Suddenly, the salt could be poured or shaken when when humid indoors. This was the denudation of the slogan ‘when it rains, it pours’, a twist on the English proverb ‘it never rains but it pours’. So the slogan was actually a positive statement nonetheless, it has over the years evolved to have negative connotations.
We have been using the statement regularly in the past three months, but back in the more traditional positive manner. With the December year-end approaching fast, we found that there was considerable demand for accelerated tax credit payments, ranging in size from £50k to c.£1m. We were kept busy by a whole range of companies from AIM listed PLCs to smaller innovative start-ups. One of the joys in dealing with such a range of companies is the personalities we meet along the way - all passionate about the R&D they have undertaken but keeping a keen eye on the business side of things at the same time. Many of our clients use our services to delay further equity rounds or bridge specific requirements. January has definitely continued in the same vein and we are encouraged by the range of companies seeking support.
December was particularly pleasing for us as we managed to complete a VGTR loan, a Film Relief loan and an R&D tax credit loan just 2 days before everyone headed off for their well-earned breaks, allowing three financial controllers to sleep more peacefully in their beds over the break. Setting deadlines for drawdown is one of the hardest parts of our job because there are so many uncertainties, so we were over the moon to get everything tied up on time. Now a New Year is upon us and already the deadlines are mounting!
If you have any questions on R&D, VGTR or Film Relief then please do get in contact and we would be delighted to see if we can help.