Home » News » Changes to R&D Tax Incentive Reporting Requirements in Updated Version of the Registration Form

Changes to R&D Tax Incentive Reporting Requirements in Updated Version of the Registration Form

Change in the R&D Tax Incentive prompts companies seeking to register activites to complete an annual R&D Tax Incentive registration form via the R&D Tax Incentive customer portal.

On 15 August 2025, an updated version of the R&D Tax Incentive registration form was released.

The new form was redesigned to:

• better sequence and align information fields within the form with the legislative requirements in the legislation;
• increase character count limits to allow the provision of additional information for key fields.

Moving forward, all companies must complete the disclosure fields within the new form when completing their annual registrations.

Based on an initial review, specific changes of note in the new R&D Tax Incentive registration form include:

• A query on whether the R&D Tax Incentive influenced a company’s decision to undertake a project;
• A description of what documents the company has kept, or intends to keep, in relation to the project;
• Details of plant and facilities a company engages in the project;
• Whether the company meets the on own behalf criteria (requiring the Company to effectively own the know-how, intellectual property, or other results arising from the project, have control over the direction and conduct of the R&D activities and bear the financial burden of carrying out the activities);
• Additional text for provision of key details around justifying a core R&D Activity, including:
  • Separate fields for sources of information investigated and unknown technical outcomes;
  • Core activity background information;
• Additional disclosures around supporting activities and dominant purpose test requirements;
• Additional disclosures around engagement of contractors and activity budgets;

Whilst the new form does present additional disclosure requirements for companies undertaking the registration, it does present benefits in:

• Providing more information to AusIndustry to allow them to better understand and assess the activities based on the information disclosed in the registration;
• Giving companies better insight into the legislative requirements for eligible activities (particularly around sources investigated and the on own behalf rules, which are currently key compliance focuses).

Company’s seeking to register activities should make themselves aware of the new reporting requirements.

Swanson Reed supports companies seeking to claim R&D Tax Incentive activities under these changes to the R&D Tax Incentive.

Please get in touch with our office if you require assistance, would like to speak to someone about a potential claim, or check out our website for more information.