Startups in Leeds
Leeds has strengths in financial services, digital and healthtech. The West Yorkshire Combined Authority's business support can help with local grants and advice, and our funding page explains how we help you get ready for a loan, a grant or investment.
What changes for contractors and healthtech firms in Leeds?
Leeds's financial-services and healthtech clusters produce two different sets of paperwork. Contractors placed into banks, insurers and other large financial firms come under the off-payroll working rules, so the end client decides their status for tax. If the contract is inside IR35, tax and National Insurance are deducted before the contractor is paid, which changes what they can claim and how they should be paid. Healthtech and digital businesses more often combine grant funding with R&D relief, and the two interact. Grants no longer reduce an R&D claim, but grant income is taxable, and it can reduce the trading loss that limits the payable credit a loss-making R&D-intensive company can claim. Both need planning before the contract is signed or the grant is accepted.
