The Research and Development (R&D) Tax Incentive registration deadline for those companies with a 30 June 2017 year end is rapidly approaching. The statutory deadline for lodging an application is 10 months after the end of the income year; for the year ended 30 June 2017 that means 30 April 2018.

R&D Tax incentive provides a tax offset for some of a company’s cost of doing eligible research and development (R&D) activities by reducing a company’s income tax liability. Tax offsets of 43.5% or 38.5% are available for costs incurred on eligible activities depending on a company’s annual aggregated turnover. The 43.5% benefit is a refundable 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).