As a relief to many, no adverse changes were proposed to the R&D Tax Incentive within the Federal Budget delivered by the government on May 9. The R&D Tax Incentive has played an important role in attracting investment to Australia, particularly in knowledge intensive industries. It has also provided small business valuable working capital in the early stages of their life cycle. The government is still yet to respond to the Ferris, Finkel & Fraser review which recommended potential adverse […]
Tech leaders Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM have joined forces to form the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society (Partnership on AI) announced in September. Just as the name suggests the organization will carry out research and development on artificial intelligence with the fundamental purpose of identifying potential AI challenges for people and society. The partnership hopes that their discoveries will effectively self-regulate the industry independent of government intervention. Why […]
As part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda launched in December 2015, the government instigated a review of the R&D Tax Incentive programme, chaired by Mr Bill Ferris AC (Innovation Australia), DR Alan Finkel AO (Chief Scientist) and Mr John Fraser (Secretary to the Treasury). The review sought to identify opportunities to improve the effectiveness and integrity of the programme and sought submissions from a variety of stakeholders (download the Swanson Reed submission here). The results of the review […]
The Omnibus Bill passed both houses of parliament last week and included $6.5 billion of savings measures. Included within these measures was a uniform 1.5% reduction in the R&D Tax Offset rates applying for income years starting on or after 1 July 2016. Whilst returning the budget to surplus is an important task for the government, this reduction is disappointing as the R&D Tax Incentive is the primary mechanism for inducing corporate investment in R&D Activity. The stability of the […]