First-time claimants

A first claim is made without a track record: you do not know how large the claim will be, how long it will take, or how the tax authority will read it. That uncertainty is the thing to price. A fee that rises with the claim protects you if the claim is small and costs you if it is large; a fixed fee does the reverse. Before the rate, settle the base: what the fee is a percentage of, whether it is measured on the amount claimed or the amount received, and what happens if the claim is reduced after filing. A first claim is also the one where seeing the whole claim before it is filed matters most, because it sets the pattern for every claim after it.

• How are your fees calculated?, with a worked example on your expected claim and on half of it
• How do you decide what qualifies?, and can you give an example of work you would leave out
• Who will do the technical work?, and how much of our people's time it will take
• Can we see the full claim before filing?
• Is review support included?

A guaranteed claim amount offered before anyone has looked at your work. Everything qualifies on the first visit. Pressure to sign quickly against a deadline you have not been shown the source of. Each has a fair version: an estimate with its assumptions, a business that does mostly qualifying work, a real filing date. The red flag pages say how to tell the difference.

Contingent success fees need no cash before the benefit arrives and cost nothing if the claim fails, which suits a business unsure whether its work qualifies; the trade is a fee that rises with the claim. Fixed fees are predictable but may cost more than a percentage on a small first claim; on the shared example the two cross at a $175,000 claim. Capped fees and hybrid fees sit between. Put each on your expected claim and on half of it with the calculator before you decide. Illustrative figures.