R&D Tax Incentive Eligibility Assessments

In Australia, there are two main tax offsets available to companies. The new R&D Tax Incentive laws apply to R&D activities from 1 July 2011. You could be eligible for either:

  • 43.5% Refundable (Cash) R&D Tax Offset – for companies with an aggregated group turnover less than $20 million; or

  • 38.5% Non-Refundable R&D Tax Offset – for companies with an aggregated group turnover of more than $20 million.

If you are eligible you will have until 30 April to apply for your R&D Tax Offset.

It is essential to adequately assess a potential R&D claim at the beginning. This is one of the most important parts of the R&D claim process. Greenwich & Co have experience in accurately assessing whether a business is eligible for the R&D Tax Incentive. Speak to one of our team to find out whether your business is eligible to claim the R&D Tax Offset.

Who can apply:

At a minimum, applicants must:

  • be an incorporated company

  • be conducting eligible core R&D activities. These are defined in the legislation as being experiments that are guided by hypotheses and conducted for the purpose of generating new knowledge

  • have incurred eligible R&D expenditure or notional deductions of at least $20,000 (unless using a Research Service Provider or a Cooperative Research Centre).

Core R&D activities are experimental activities:

a.       whose outcome cannot be known or determined in advance on the basis of current knowledge, information or experience, but can only be determined by applying a systematic progression of work that:

    1.        is based on principles of established science; and
    2.        proceeds from hypothesis to experiment, observation and evaluation, and leads to logical conclusions; and

b.      that are conducted for the purpose of generating new knowledge (including new knowledge in the form of new or improved materials,
products, devices, processes or services)