The Federal Government handed down their budget on 2 April 2019 and whilst there appeared to be no specific new changes proposed to the R&D Tax Incentive, the forward estimates cost of the programme is projected to reduce by $1.35 billion. It is not clear whether this cost reduction is a product of: The legislative changes proposed in the last federal budget being introduced. These changes were recently the subject of a Senate Economics Committee review that recommended the changes […]
The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has stated that government, industry and researchers must work together to ensure solutions are developed for potential opportunities and issues posed by artificial intelligence (AI) products and services. Chief Executive Ron Gauci said that a focus on skills development and an effective R&D Tax Incentive programme would encourage a more favourable business environment for innovation, commercialisation and export of Australian AI products. He said that without strong government support, Australia will struggle to compete […]
CBA have announced to the ASX on 18 March that they have entered into a settlement in respect of a tax dispute regarding the eligibility of claims for software development R&D activities. Below is an extract from the ASX announcement: Commonwealth Bank of Australia has agreed to withdraw from all current proceedings with the ATO and Innovation and Science Australia (ISA) before the AAT in respect of the eligibility of R&D claims that were made for the years ended 30 […]
To bring a new drug to market, an average of 12 years and $1.7 billion (US) in R&D spending is required. Yet only 1 in 5,000 drugs that begin preclinical testing make it to the market. This has led to a disproportionate number of drugs being developed for rare diseases (affecting less than 200,000 in the US at any given time) due to a 25.3% success rate versus 3.4% for oncology. Many argue this is unsustainable and there is pressure […]