Case studies
Twelve illustrative case studies: invented businesses, the shared illustrative figures, and what would have helped in each case. Filter by fee type, red flag or company type.
Every case study on this site is illustrative. The businesses are invented, described only by what they do and roughly how big they are; no person, firm, product or place is named, and the figures are the shared illustrative example used across the site. Each one follows the same shape: the situation, what was signed, what happened, what it cost, and what would have helped, with links to the questions, clauses and scripts that would have changed the outcome.
Not every case study is a cautionary tale. Several show a fair arrangement working as it should, or a business that asked the right question in time. No case study implies that any fee model is wrong in itself; each shows what a particular term did in a particular situation. Filter the list by fee type, red flag or company type to find the ones closest to yours.
- The fee that stayed when the claim shrankIllustrativeA percentage fee charged on the claim as filed, a reduction on review two years later, and no refund clause: the business repaid the difference and the fee stayed where it was. What to ask before signing.
- The three-year contract nobody rememberedIllustrativeA fixed annual fee that renewed automatically with a six month notice period, found only when the business tried to leave: how a term that nobody read in year one decided year four, and how to spot the clause.
- The cold call about past yearsIllustrativeAn unsolicited offer to amend earlier returns, a refund that arrived, and a review that followed: what a small business learned about claims for past years, and what to check before saying yes.
- Two proposals, one claimIllustrativeA fixed fee and a percentage fee put on the same basis by a business making an uncertain first claim: the crossover point, the bad year, the non-fee terms, and a decision made knowingly. A case that ends well.
- The fee that grew with the payrollIllustrativeAn uncapped percentage that rose each year as a startup hired, for the same adviser work: how the fee went from $20,000 to $100,000 in three years, and how a cap changed it.
- The claim the engineers never sawIllustrativeA claim written from cost records without the technical team, and what happened when the tax authority asked questions the engineers could not answer: why the people who did the work should read the claim.
- When the review letter arrivedIllustrativeA fixed fee that covered preparing the claim, and review help that turned out to be extra, at hourly rates with no budget, when a medical device company's claim was reviewed: what the engagement letter should have said, and what the help cost.
- Everything qualified, until it did notIllustrativeMost of the payroll claimed as R&D by a consultancy whose adviser found that everything qualified, and the repayment that followed a review: how to test what qualifies before the tax authority does.
- Getting the records backIllustrativeA change of adviser, an exit fee and a dispute over working papers: how an engineering group found that its claim file belonged to someone else, and how ownership of records should be agreed.
- The referral nobody mentionedIllustrativeAn introduction from a trusted accountant who was paid for it, discovered a year later: nothing wrong with the claim, and a question that would have brought the payment out before signing.
- The manufacturer who negotiated a capIllustrativeA business that kept its adviser and changed the fee terms: what a manufacturer asked for at renewal when its claim doubled, what it offered in return, and what it got. A case that ends well.
- A second opinion before filingIllustrativeAn independent check that found a problem before the claim was filed: a life sciences startup, a draft claim with one doubtful project, and an hourly review that paid for itself. When a second opinion is worth it.
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