Someone forwarded you our specimen. Here's the one-page version.

You're probably their accountant, and they've asked whether a £499 fixed-fee enquiry response pack is credible. Reasonable question. This page is for you.

What it is

Drafting support for an HMRC R&D enquiry: validity check on the notice (FA 1998 Sch 18 para 24, delivery-date basis), the letter decoded question by question against the DSIT guidelines, project-by-project defensibility, Sch 24 FA 2007 penalty modelling with the prompted-disclosure floors, cost reconciliation with workings, and a response letter drafted for the client's own signature.

What it is not

We are not tax agents and never correspond with HMRC — no 64-8, nothing sent by us. Your client signs everything, which means you remain the adviser of record throughout. It is not advice; it is analysis and drafting your client (and you) can verify line by line, because every assertion cites its source.

How to judge it

Read the public specimen the way you'd review a junior's file: check the para 24 window arithmetic, the Sch 24 bands, the EM1580 point on response deadlines, the case law (Get Onbord, Flame Tree, Tills Plus, Beer Express). If anything is wrong, we want to know: [email protected] goes to the accountable human.

Working together

Most engagements go better with you in the loop: we draft, you review before signature, your client pays a fixed £499 instead of specialist defence fees, and the tedious parts — the AIF consistency audit, the cost reconciliation — arrive done, with workings. If you have several of these on your desk (many practices inherited enquiries when volume R&D consultancies closed), we're open to a standing arrangement: [email protected].