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The R&D Tax Incentive Makes It Through Federal Budget Cuts Unharmed

May 10th, 2017 The R&D Tax Incentive Makes It Through Federal Budget Cuts Unharmed

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 changes to the R&D Tax Incentive such as:

  • A cap of $2M on the maximum annual amount refundable as cash for small companies in loss;
  • An intensity threshold for large companies whereby only eligible R&D expenditure over a defined threshold amount would be subject to a tax benefit;

Changes for these recommendations may still materialize in coming months once the government does respond to the programme’s review and consider the various stakeholder consultations.

Also included in the Federal Budget was a $100 million manufacturing fund that will aid companies in diversifying  their business and creating high-value products.

According to Industry Minister Arthur Sinodinos, the fund would be broken down in the following manner; $47.5 million of the funding would be for an advanced manufacturing growth fund, $24 million would be for advanced research projects to assist companies in manufacturing new products, $10 million would go to innovation labs in Victoria and South Australia, and $5 million will be invested in student research.

For further information on the R&D Tax Incentive, please click here to contact a Swanson Reed tax specialist.

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