InnovationAus this week has reported on concerns raised by advocacy group Fintech Australia in respect of the application of the R&D Tax Incentive to software activity. The concerns were raised in the group’s submission to the Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre, and a summary of points raised include: concern that regulators’ interpretations of “activities” and “experiments” under the scheme are restrictive to software claims and lead to many tech firms not accessing the incentive; concern that […]
In the May federal budget, the Australian Government announced that it will introduce a patent box for eligible income associated with new patents in the medical and biotechnology sectors. The patent box will apply to companies for income years commencing on or after 1 July 2022, and for new Australian patents since budget night. The aim of such a policy is to encourage companies to base their medical and biotechnology R&D activity in Australia and to retain associated patent […]
Australia’s R&D tax incentive program is dually administered by two government agencies: AusIndustry (on behalf of Industry Innovation and Science Australia): registers R&D activities disclosed in applications lodged with the agency. AusIndustry has authority to make findings on eligibility of activities. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO): administers R&D tax offset entitlements disclosed in company income tax returns lodged with the agency. The ATO reviews compliance matters such as substantiation of expenditure and structural tax issues such as on whose behalf […]
Companies are now able to register R&D activities with AusIndustry for the year ended 30 June 2021 (FY21). For the FY21 period, the application process is now administered through the new online customer portal which has presented a number of changes over the previous processes, including: The need for the company director to have established a MyGovID account linked to the R&D entity and their R&D tax agent; New questions and reporting fields in the R&D application, including: Details of […]