CREC081100 - Claims: additional information form: overview

Relief for Creative Industries (Additional Information Requirements and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2024

From 1 April 2024, all claims to any of the Creative Industry Tax Reliefs or Expenditure Credits must be accompanied by an online additional information form.

You can watch a recorded webinar about the form here: Additional Information Form Webinar. The webinar covers most (but not all) of the content in this guidance.

The additional information form must be submitted either before, or on the same day as, the company’s tax return for the period. There are no restrictions on how much earlier than the return the form can be sent, but it must be after the end of the accounting period to which it relates.

If the form is submitted late (i.e. after the day that the CT600 has been sent), then the company’s tax return must be amended and the claim re-submitted (even if no changes are required to the CT600), in order for it to be recognised as a valid claim by HMRC. The date of the claim will be the date that the valid claim was submitted to HMRC.

If a claim is made in the CT600 but is not supported by a complete additional information form and all the necessary supporting evidence, it will be invalid and will not be processed. HMRC will amend the CT600 to remove the claim and make the company aware in writing.

A form can only cover one accounting period (a maximum of 12 months). If the company wishes to claim for more than one accounting period, they must submit multiple forms.

The form will not request any bank details, but these have to be included on the CT600 in order for HMRC to make prompt credit payments.

Who can submit the form

The form can only be completed by a representative of the company, or an agent acting on behalf of the company, and requires Government Gateway sign-in. An agent must have an agent services account and have authorisation from the company. If the agent is not the company’s authorised (’64-8’) agent, then written authorisation must be uploaded by the agent in the first section of the form.

‘Group tax manager’ Government Gateway credentials cannot be used to access the form. Each company in a group that needs to complete a form will need to set up an ‘organisation account’. Each company making a claim must have a separate account.

Format and content of the form

The form contains eight sections, of which six must be completed as part of a claim to a Creative Industry Expenditure Credit. The other two sections cover the other Creative Industry Tax Reliefs and only need to be completed if the company is intending to claim any of the other reliefs in the period, in addition to either of the credits.

The form will ask for information about the applicant (the person completing the form), company details, and details about how the expenditure credit will be offset. Some sections cannot be started until previous ones are complete; if a customer is unable to progress, they should check to see if any sub-sections are marked as ‘in progress’ or ‘not started.’

There will be some information requested for every single individual production in the claim.

The form will not ask for expenditure or credit amounts on a per-production basis. These should instead be supplied as part of the supporting evidence. However, the form will require expenditure and credit amount totals for each type of credit being claimed (e.g. if the claim is for five films, then the credit total for all five of those films should be added together).  

The form contains several opportunities to submit supporting evidence as attachments. Some of these, such as uploading a British cultural certificate, are necessary to proceed with the form.

In the final step before submission, the applicant will have a chance to review their answers.

Completing the form

The entire form doesn’t all have to be completed in one sitting. If the applicant wishes to pause partway, they can save their answers until they return. Draft versions are retained for 28 days before deletion.

The form will time out after 20 minutes of inactivity, but applicants will not lose any saved answers.

The form cannot be accessed again following submission, but applicants will be given an opportunity to save a copy of their answers. The applicant will also receive confirmation via email, which will include a reference number.

Amendments

The form cannot be amended after it has been submitted, so if companies wish to make any changes, they must send in an entirely new version.