Swanson Reed News

Review R&D Case Law: substantiating an experiment – Compliance burden or insightful planning?

October 24th, 2013

Changes to the definition of eligible activities; uncertainties around the definition of new terms, such as dominant purpose; and recent decisions handed down in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) regarding substantiation have all contributed to additional uncertainty for taxpayers during the transition to the new R&D Tax Incentive. In the AAT, a number of decisions have been handed down, deciding against taxpayers on the basis that the documents provided were insufficient or inappropriate for substantiating the R&D claims. While the […]

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Vision Intelligence Pty Ltd and Commissioner of Taxation [2013] AATA 527

October 23rd, 2013

The recent AAT decision, Vision Intelligence Pty Ltd and Innovation Australia [2013] AATA 527 was a taxation appeals case that related to a taxpayer’s calculation of expenditure items within its R&D tax claim submission and the possible penalties the ATO may impose on that taxpayer for recklessness in the calculation. This case is relevant to companies that wish to reassess their ‘risk profile’ and ‘reasonable care’ position with respect to the R&D Tax Incentive. Background Vision Intelligence (or the Applicant) engaged a management […]

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Important changes to AusIndustry’s r&d activites form

October 20th, 2013

Last week, AusIndustry released version 5 of the R&D activities form. The application now requires more information from the Applicant regarding the nature of core and supporting activities alongside additional administrative information. Whilst the new requirements will require more time and input to complete, Swanson Reed views the changes as positive since Applicants must explicitly assert how their activities are eligible under the legislation. Swanson Reed recommends that all applicants spend sufficient time addressing the requirements of the expanded application […]

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Mount Owen Pty Ltd and Innovation Australia [2013] AATA 573

October 18th, 2013

The recent AAT decision, Mount Owen Pty Ltd and Innovation Australia [2013] AATA 573 was a well resourced AAT case that related to the R&D activities conducted by a large coal producer.  It is relevant to companies that conduct R&D activities in a production environment. It is important to note that although the case references the Applicant as Hunter Valley Coal Corporation Pty Ltd, a then subsidiary of BHP Ltd, BHP had sold this company to another mining company and had no […]

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Bryce Steele
Principal, Melbourne
Tom Parkhouse
Principal, Sydney
Andy Nguyen
Principal, Brisbane
Holly Parkinson
Manager, Adelaide
David Greatwich
Principal, Perth
Krishna Gungaram
Manager, Hobart

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