Australia’s R&D tax incentive program is dually administered by two government agencies: AusIndustry (on behalf of Industry Innovation and Science Australia): registers R&D activities disclosed in applications lodged with the agency. AusIndustry has authority to make findings on eligibility of activities. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO): administers R&D tax offset entitlements disclosed in company income tax returns lodged with the agency. The ATO reviews compliance matters such as substantiation of expenditure and structural tax issues such as on whose behalf […]
Companies are now able to register R&D activities with AusIndustry for the year ended 30 June 2021 (FY21). For the FY21 period, the application process is now administered through the new online customer portal which has presented a number of changes over the previous processes, including: The need for the company director to have established a MyGovID account linked to the R&D entity and their R&D tax agent; New questions and reporting fields in the R&D application, including: Details of […]
Under SECT 355.405 ITAA97, an entity cannot claim R&D expenditure in situations where: (a) when an entity incurs R&D expenditure, consideration had been received, or was reasonably expected to be received: as a direct or indirect result of the expenditure being incurred; and regardless of the results of the activities on which the expenditure is incurred; and (b) that consideration is equal to or greater than the expenditure. The spirit of this provision is to ensure companies only receive a […]
Over recent weeks AusIndustry launched their new, online R&D Tax Incentive customer portal which replaces the old PDF Smartform Lodgement system. AusIndustry are mandating that all FY21 R&D Applications are lodged via this new online system, which commences accepting lodgements from Monday 5 July, 2021. There are significant changes from the old system (both in the lodgement process and reporting declarations) and companies who are looking to lodge their FY21 applications soon after the end of the financial year should […]