Unlocking Innovation: How Irish Fintech Companies Can Maximise R&D Tax Credits

Jun 13

3 min read

As Ireland continues to cement its position as a European fintech hub, innovation is the lifeblood of growth. From AI-powered risk analysis to blockchain-based payment systems, fintech companie

s are driving the future of financial services. Yet, many in the sector remain unaware of how much of their investment in innovation could be recouped through Ireland’s generous R&D tax credit system.

What Is the R&D Tax Credit?

Ireland’s Research & Development (R&D) Tax Credit provides a 30% credit on qualifying R&D expenditure, on top of a 12.5% corporation tax deduction. This means eligible companies can benefit from an effective tax benefit of up to 42.5% on R&D costs.

What Counts as R&D in Fintech?

The key to qualifying is that your work involves systematic, investigative, or experimental activity, aimed at achieving a technological advancement, and involves technical uncertainty. In fintech, this can include:

Developing AI/ML-based fraud detection
Building regulatory technology tools for real-time compliance
Creating scalable blockchain infrastructures
Designing proprietary trading algorithms
Overcoming latency issues in real-time payment platforms
Developing proprietary APIs to connect disparate legacy banking systems

Real-World Examples in Irish Fintech

🔍 Fenergo (Dublin)

Fenergo is a global leader in Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) and regulatory onboarding solutions, serving top-tier banks and financial institutions. Their platform streamlines processes around KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

R&D Relevance: Fenergo continually enhances its platform to meet evolving international regulations such as MiFID II, FATCA, and GDPR. The development of dynamic regulatory rules engines, automated risk scoring systems, and integrations with third-party data providers often involves significant technical and scientific challenges, especially in building systems that adapt to constant regulatory change.
Claimable Activities: Designing scalable software architecture, natural language processing for regulatory updates, and advanced data mapping for cross-jurisdictional compliance.

📊 Corlytics (Dublin)

Corlytics is a regtech company specialising in regulatory intelligence through data science and AI. Its platform enables banks and financial institutions to assess regulatory risk by ingesting, classifying, and analysing vast volumes of regulatory documentation from around the world.

R&D Relevance: Corlytics develops proprietary natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to interpret complex legal and regulatory texts across multiple jurisdictions. Their platform must learn and evolve with new inputs, requiring continuous innovation in machine learning and knowledge graph development — classic examples of systematic R&D.
Claimable Activities: Training AI models to detect nuanced changes in regulatory policy, refining classification systems for legal texts, and building predictive tools for compliance impact.

Why Fintechs Overlook the Credit

Despite their technical nature, many fintechs don’t claim the credit because:

They assume R&D only applies to tangible new product development
They fail to document their iterative development/sprint cycles adequately
They rely on agile development, which doesn’t always produce clear phase gates or prototypes
They believe the work to capture the R&D claim is overly cumbersome and are afraid of submitting incorrect claim documentation to Revenue.

Revenue doesn’t require patents or tangible products - it requires evidence of trying to resolve technological problems where the solution isn't readily available or can't be found open-source.

How to Maximise Your Claim

Start Early: Keep contemporaneous records of development work, highlighting uncertainties faced and how you tried to resolve them.
Identify Eligible Projects: Focus on projects with custom architecture, algorithmic complexity, or regulatory innovation.
Engage Experts: An R&D tax adviser with fintech experience can bridge the gap between developers and tax documentation — helping ensure your claim is compliant and optimised.

Final Thoughts

Fintech in Ireland is thriving, and the government is backing innovation with real financial support. If your company is building anything that hasn’t been done before — or doing it in a technically novel way — there’s a strong chance it qualifies for Ireland’s R&D tax credit.

Looking to assess your eligibility? A quick discovery session with one of our tax advisers could lead to a significant cash refund or tax saving — and it might just fund your next big product breakthrough.