This morning, in a bold move to resurrect the quarterly credits concept, the Leader of the Greens, Christine Milne moved amendments in the Senate to the Tax Laws Amendment (Research and Development) Bill 2013. As part of this move, the Greens will also aim to strike out Government plans to cut R&D incentives for large companies. It is important to note that the original Tax Laws Amendment (2013 Measures No. 4) Bill 2013 established a scheme for making refundable tax offsets available in […]
On 18 March 2014 the Senate referred the inquiry into Australia’s innovation system to the Senate Economics References Committee. The Economics Legislation Committee inquires allow interested parties to submit their views on the Australian Innovation System. Swanson Reed’s submission focused on key areas of policy and investment in order to ensure Australia remains globally significant in an increasingly competitive world. Our key points are illustrated below: With the rise of Asia, a well executed innovation strategy involving full and fair stakeholder […]
The Commission Audit report, which examined Australian Government finances, has recommended that public funding of agricultural R&D in Australia be significantly reduced. The recommendations made by the report suggested that the amount of government funding be reduced to better reflect the mix of private and public benefits. It was suggested that the current cap on dollar for dollar matching of industry contributions by the government (which is currently set at 0.5 percent of gross value of production) should be halved […]
According to surveys conducted by the Australian Industry Group, 70 per cent of the 364 businesses surveyed said reducing the tax burden was one of their top three priorities for the Budget. Increasing spending on infrastructure and calling for the Government to bring the Budget into balance over the next five years were also ranked as high priorities. Among the business community there were high priorities placed on increasing the spending on training and apprentices and raising tax incentives for […]