A federal court case with judgement dated 16 December 2024 (with The Commissioner of Taxation as the Applicant and a number of parties as Respondents) has declared that respondents were promoters of tax exploitation schemes to secure R&D tax offsets pursuant to Division 355 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) for a number of companies. Very large penalties have been levied in the case and the liquidations of two entities listed as respondents were noted in the judgement as being on hold pending the outcome of […]
An AAT decision handed down in December 2023 (Active Sports Management Pty Ltd and Industry Innovation and Science Australia) previously found that activities in respect of development of a customised basketball shoe were not eligible under the R&D Tax Incentive. It was found in the AAT case that, “none of the Claimed Activities were core R&D activities within the meaning of subsection 355-25(1) of the ITAA 1997..” ACTIVE SPORTS MANAGEMENT PTY LTD applied to the federal court to appeal the decision and the Federal […]
Reports have emerged that the chiefs of Australia’s leading technology companies collaborated in sending a joint letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday. The letter was signed by leaders at Atlassian, Canva, Airwallex, Culture Amp, StartupAUS, Prospa, Freelancer, NextDC among others. The letter has expressed particular concerns regarding: Australian investment in research and development lagging behind peer OECD nations; The proposed reforms to reduce the R&D Tax Offset; The retrospective implementation of the reforms, if passed as law; A […]
A reform bill proposing controversial changes to the R&D Tax Incentive for FY20 is currently being considered by the Senate. This bill is a slightly modified version of a previous reform bill (Treasury Laws Amendment (Making Sure Multinationals Pay Their Fair Share of Tax in Australia and Other Measures) Bill 2018), which did not pass through the Senate last year. A Senate Economics Legislation Committee recommended in February 2019 that this bill should be deferred from consideration until further analysis […]