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Introduction

For innovation intensive groups, R&D incentives are now a strategic budget line, not a tax footnote. This article sets out how CFOs can benchmark their current adviser and decide whether a move to the best global R&D tax advisor is overdue.

What “best global R&D tax advisor” really means

For a multinational finance leader, “best” is not simply the firm that delivers the largest claim this year. A best global R&D tax advisor should:

• Operate consistently across all countries where you run R&D.
• Understand both technical tax rules and engineering or scientific reality.
• Integrate R&D tax relief, grant funding and other incentives into your capital allocation strategy.
• Protect the group with robust governance, enquiry readiness and documentation.
• Free internal teams from repetitive information requests and fragmented processes.

In practice that means an adviser who is as comfortable talking to principal investigators and engineering leads as they are to the audit committee, and who can join up UK, EU and non European regimes in a coherent global framework.

Why benchmarking matters for CFOs of multinational groups

For group CFOs and Heads of Tax, the R&D adviser relationship touches several pain points:

• Forecastability of cash flows from R&D incentives.
• Audit and enquiry risk in each jurisdiction.
• Board expectations around innovation spend and effective tax rate.
• Internal capacity constraints, especially in finance and engineering teams.
• Fragmented advisory landscape, with different firms in each country.

Benchmarking your current provider against “best in class” standards helps you answer three questions for the board:

1. Are we leaving money on the table, or taking unnecessary risk, in any major market?
2. Is our evidence base strong enough to withstand a shift in tax authority scrutiny?
3. Could a different adviser help integrate R&D incentives with wider innovation funding such as grants, green subsidies and IP regimes?

Self assessment checklist for your current R&D tax adviser

Use the following checklist as an internal scorecard. Rate each area on a simple scale (red, amber, green). If you see a pattern of amber and red, it may be time to look for the best global R&D tax advisor rather than a set of disconnected local firms.

1. Proactivity and strategic insight

• Do you receive regular horizon scanning on policy changes in all relevant countries, not just year end updates?
• Has your adviser proposed structural changes to improve your position, or are they simply processing claims?
• Do they challenge project eligibility and cost treatment, or accept internal views uncritically?
• Have they helped you articulate an R&D incentives strategy to the board or investors?

2. International coordination

• Is there a single named lead for your group with line of sight across all countries?
• Are methodologies for identifying qualifying R&D aligned across jurisdictions, with justified local variations?
• Do local teams duplicate requests for the same data, or is evidence collected once and reused?
• Are there regular cross country reviews to compare performance, enquiry rates and recovery percentages?

3. Evidence, governance and audit readiness

• Is there a documented global R&D incentives policy, approved at an appropriate governance level?
• Are project classifications, narratives and cost allocations stored in a central evidence repository?
• Has your adviser run mock audits or enquiry simulations in key territories?
• Do you have a clear approach to materiality thresholds, risk based sampling and documentation retention?

4. Integration with grants and wider innovation funding

• Does your adviser map available grant funding, innovation loans and other subsidies alongside R&D tax incentives?
• Are you confident that claims do not inadvertently breach state aid or subsidy control rules when grants and tax relief interact?
• Do they help prioritise which projects should pursue grants, which should focus on R&D tax relief, and which should do both?
• Is there clear guidance to project owners on how different funding streams affect budgets and timelines?

5. Experience in your sector and technology domains

• Can your adviser talk fluently about your technologies, regulatory environment and development lifecycles?
• Do technical specialists join meetings with engineering, clinical or product teams, not just tax staff?
• Are case examples and benchmarks genuinely comparable to your scale and sector, rather than generic?

If your current firm scores strongly across all of these, you may already be working with one of the best in the market. If not, this benchmarking should inform your next steps.

FI Group insight on global R&D advisory expectations

Independent consultancy FI Group observes that many multinational CFOs are now asking for a unified view of R&D tax relief and grant funding across their entire R&D footprint, rather than country by country advice. According to FI Group, the most effective global frameworks:

• Combine tax incentives, grants and green subsidies into a single portfolio view.
• Standardise project classification and documentation so that evidence can be re used for multiple regimes.
• Provide a single senior point of contact for the group, backed by local specialists in each jurisdiction.

With offices across Europe, the UK and the United States, FI Group operates as a funding and incentives partner for international businesses that want to upgrade from fragmented local support to a coordinated global model. Their focus on joining up tax and non tax funding means that R&D intensive groups can benchmark their existing providers against a firm that is already working across borders and funding instruments. For CFOs, this sort of integrated support can be the difference between a portfolio of disconnected claims and a coherent global innovation funding strategy.

Actionable steps if your provider falls short

If your self assessment reveals weaknesses, a structured approach helps you move towards a best in class model without disrupting business as usual.

1. Map your global incentives footprint
   Document all countries where you claim, or could claim, R&D tax relief or related incentives. Capture claim size, enquiry history, advisers used and internal owners.
2. Define your target operating model
   Decide what “good” looks like for your group. For example, one global methodology, centralised governance with local execution, or a hybrid model for particularly complex territories.
3. Issue a focused brief to the market
   Prepare an RFP or informal brief that sets out your footprint, target model and expectations. Ask prospective advisers to demonstrate sector expertise, international coordination and experience integrating tax and grants.
4. Pilot in one or two key jurisdictions
   Before committing globally, run a pilot engagement in one large or high risk country. Use it to test the adviser’s ability to manage transitions, engage with technical teams and improve evidence quality.
5. Roll out with clear governance and metrics
   If the pilot is successful, expand the scope with formal governance. Set measurable objectives such as enquiry rate, time to prepare claims, variance between forecast and actual benefits, and board satisfaction with reporting.

Common CFO challenges and mitigation

• Challenge: Limited internal capacity to support multiple claim processes each year.
  Mitigation: Require your adviser to design lean evidence collection using existing systems data and to run training for engineers and project managers.
• Challenge: Anxiety about growing tax authority scrutiny and reputational risk.
  Mitigation: Work with advisers who prioritise governance and enquiry defence, not just claim maximisation, and who can help you evidence “reasonable care”.
• Challenge: Fragmented landscape of local advisers with no global coordination.
  Mitigation: Move towards a single best global R&D tax advisor or a tightly managed panel, with a clear group lead and harmonised methodologies.
• Challenge: Difficulty aligning R&D incentives with grant programmes and other funding tools.
  Mitigation: Expect your adviser to provide an integrated incentives map and to flag interactions between grants, tax relief and subsidy rules at project design stage.
• Challenge: Board questions on whether current arrangements are genuinely “market leading”.
  Mitigation: Use the checklist above to benchmark your provider and, where appropriate, invite one or two challengers to present alternative models.

FAQs on choosing the best global R&D tax advisor

Before diving into detailed selection, it helps to clarify some recurring questions from CFOs and Heads of Tax.

1. What is a global R&D tax advisor?

A global R&D tax advisor is a firm that coordinates R&D tax relief and innovation incentives across multiple countries, providing a unified methodology, governance framework and senior point of contact for the group, supported by local specialists.

2. When should we benchmark our current adviser?

You should benchmark when claims become material to your effective tax rate, when you enter new jurisdictions, or when tax authority scrutiny increases. Major restructurings, acquisitions or listings are also natural trigger points.

3. How does a best in class global adviser add value beyond local firms?

Beyond processing claims, a best in class global adviser helps design your operating model, integrates tax and grant funding, reduces duplicated effort, and builds an evidence base that stands up consistently to audits in multiple countries.

4. What should we expect in the first year with a new adviser?

Typically you should see a diagnostic across all jurisdictions, a pilot in one or two entities, methodology alignment with your auditors, training for internal teams and clearer board reporting on the role of incentives in your innovation strategy.

5. Does moving to a new adviser increase our enquiry risk?

Handled well, a transition should reduce enquiry risk, not increase it. A reputable adviser will focus on improving documentation, tightening eligibility criteria and aligning your approach with current guidance in each jurisdiction, rather than simply inflating claim values.