To drive greater collaboration and wider benefits for Australia, the R&D Tax Incentive should offer a premium rate for R&D undertaken with Australian publicly funded research organisations.
The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the Treasury’s Draft Research and Development (R&D) Tax Incentive Amendments.
Key points and recommendations:
- The R&D Tax Incentive is an effective measure when used in the spirit that the program is intended and is pleased that the Government is taking action to improve the program.
- The Academy supports the Government’s decision to appoint the Board of the ISA along with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to jointly administer the Incentive.
- ATSE views the Government’s non-acceptance of Recommendation 2 of the Review of the R&D Tax Incentive (the Review) as a missed opportunity. To drive greater collaboration, ATSE recommends that the R&D Tax Incentive should provide a premium rate to companies for expenditure on R&D undertaken with Australian publicly funded research organisations.
- The Academy welcomes the proposed clinical trials exemption, which will support the growth of the Australian clinical trials industry.
- The outcomes of the R&D Tax Incentive Changes should be monitored to ensure the impacts on companies is minimised, with resourcing of the ABS to monitor these outcomes improved.
- The Incentive remains a critical part of the nation’s innovation ecosystem and it is important that confidence in the program is maintained to provide certainty to businesses and support growth in Australian R&D.