What is the Research and development (R&D) Tax Incentive?
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) states, “The R&D Tax Incentive encourages companies to engage in R&D benefiting Australia, by providing a tax offset for eligible R&D activities.”
Essentially, the R&D Tax Incentive provides businesses with a tax benefit to encourage and help companies with the costs of R&D undertakings, and in July 2011, the R&D Tax Incentive replaced the R&D Tax Concession.
There are two main components to the R&D Tax Incentive. The first being “a refundable tax offset for certain eligible entities whose aggregated turnover is less than $20 million,” where businesses can receive up to a 43.5% refundable tax offset.
The second component is “a non-refundable tax offset for all other eligible entities,” meaning those who have an aggregated turnover of over $20 million may receive a non-refundable tax offset of up to 38.5%.
In some cases, it may also be possible to claim for any R&D taken place overseas.
Am I eligible?
To be entitled for the R&D tax offset, you must already be an R&D entity. Your business must be liable to pay income tax in Australia and must have undergone at least one eligible R&D activity. If this is the case for you, you must have also incurred notional deductions of at least $20,000 in one tax year, on your eligible R&D undertaking.
According to the ATO, if your notional deductions are under $20,000, you may still be eligible for the R&D tax offset for:
- “Expenditure incurred to a Research Service Provider (RSP) for services within a research field for which the RSP is registered under the IR&D Act, where that RSP isn’t an associate of the R&D entity;
- “Expenditure incurred as a monetary contribution under the Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) program.”
You can read more about R&D Tax Incentive deductions here.
In order to receive a tax offset for your eligible R&D activity, you must submit a new application each year, no later than 10 months prior to your business’s income year.
To check your eligibility, you can visit the ATO’s eligible entities page. Alternatively, you can contact our friendly and experienced team on 07 3367 3155, who will assist you with record and documentation keeping as required by legislation
