Federal budgets under both major parties have not presented good news for the R&D Tax Incentive in recent years, with the flagship programme for encouraging business investment in R&D subjected to a series of proposed cuts via caps and rate reductions. This year’s budget has been a welcome change in the wake of the Government’s plan for COVID economic recovery. As was flagged by the media last week, the government has largely backed away from the unworkable changes in its […]
In December 2019, the government re-introduced a bill to reform the R&D Tax Incentive. This bill was 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 at that time. A Senate Economics Legislation Committee recommended in February 2019 that the initial bill should be deferred from consideration until further analysis of the bill’s impact […]
The federal budget, traditionally in May each year was deferred by the government until 6 October 2020 due to COVID. In comments to Smartcompany.com.au, this week, StartupAus chief Alex McCauley has continued his strong advocacy for the R&D Tax Incentive. Key highlights of Alex’s position include: This year’s budget can be somewhat be considered as two budgets together, in a seven month period; the R&D Tax Incentive is the “number one priority” for this year’s budget; whatever the merits were of amending the […]
Fintech Australia has used a speech at the Senate Select Committee of Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology to call for better clarity that software activities be included within the scope of eligibility for R&D Tax Incentives. The Article reports a senior figure from ISA responding to the question “Would Atlassian be considered eligible for R&D tax incentives?” with a reply of “No, because it’s software”. We note however that this comment may be incorrect or out of context since: It […]