Recommendation 41

Transitional rules within the merged scheme would be undesirable: they add to the overall complexity of the transition and could mean that affected businesses are subject to two different regimes (both the RDEC and the merged scheme) in relation to R&D spend until the end of the transitional period. The need for such transitional arrangements would be best avoided by deferring the start date for the merged scheme to allow companies to prepare for the changes.