HMRC restarts R&D claimant contact from 12 November by email or letter only

From 12 November 2026GOV, a company that has submitted a Research and Development tax relief claim relating to software projects, or that has made R&D claims over multiple accounting periods, may receive an email or letter from HMRCGOV. Contact comes by email or letter onlyGOVGOV: phone calls are no longer among the genuine methods for this programmeGOV. HMRC may also send an email reminder with links to guidance on GOV.UK, and it will not ask for any personal financial informationGOV.

This replaces the earlier programme, which has now closedGOV. From 1 June up to and including 31 October 2026GOV, HMRC invited claimants to a short voluntary feedback session about their experience of claiming R&D tax reliefGOV, contacting them by phone, email or letter, with all feedback treated confidentially and used only for research to improve HMRC's services. That window has passedGOV, and with it the phone call as a genuine channelGOV and the open invitation to any claimantGOV.

The audience has narrowed with the purpose. The closed programme invited feedback without naming claimant groups; the new programme names two defined groups — software-project claims and claims spanning multiple accounting periodsGOV. Advisers whose clients fall inside those groups should brief them now, because the contact starts immediately.

The section describes the contact as follows: the channel is email or letter; an email reminder may carry links to guidance on GOV.UK; and HMRC will not ask for any personal financial information. A phone call presenting itself as this R&D programme therefore falls outside the email-or-letter methods the section describes. The listing also points readers to reporting suspicious HMRC emails, texts, social media accounts and phone calls.

This section sits within HMRC's listing of contacts that can use more than one communication method, in alphabetical order. Other contacts described alongside it use different channels — Self Assessment registration confirmations, for example, arrive by email or text message — so the email-or-letter position belongs to the R&D tax relief section, not to HMRC contact in generalGOV.

Source of truth: HMRC's 'Check genuine HMRC contact that uses more than one communication method' guidance, Research and Development (R&D) tax relief section.