October, 2013

Have Quarterly Credits gone the way of the Dodo?

October 28th, 2013

The Tax Laws Amendment (2013 Measures No. 4) Bill 2013 aimed to establish a new scheme for making refundable tax offsets available in quarterly installments. Under that proposed scheme, eligible small and medium companies would access installments on a quarterly basis in anticipation of claiming the 45 per cent research and development refundable tax offset at the end of the income year.  It is the first of its kind in Australia. However, with a new Parliament comes a new plan […]

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Review R&D Case Law: substantiating an experiment – Compliance burden or insightful planning?

October 24th, 2013

Changes to the definition of eligible activities; uncertainties around the definition of new terms, such as dominant purpose; and recent decisions handed down in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) regarding substantiation have all contributed to additional uncertainty for taxpayers during the transition to the new R&D Tax Incentive. In the AAT, a number of decisions have been handed down, deciding against taxpayers on the basis that the documents provided were insufficient or inappropriate for substantiating the R&D claims. While the […]

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Vision Intelligence Pty Ltd and Commissioner of Taxation [2013] AATA 527

October 23rd, 2013

The recent AAT decision, Vision Intelligence Pty Ltd and Innovation Australia [2013] AATA 527 was a taxation appeals case that related to a taxpayer’s calculation of expenditure items within its R&D tax claim submission and the possible penalties the ATO may impose on that taxpayer for recklessness in the calculation. This case is relevant to companies that wish to reassess their ‘risk profile’ and ‘reasonable care’ position with respect to the R&D Tax Incentive. Background Vision Intelligence (or the Applicant) engaged a management […]

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Important changes to AusIndustry’s r&d activites form

October 20th, 2013

Last week, AusIndustry released version 5 of the R&D activities form. The application now requires more information from the Applicant regarding the nature of core and supporting activities alongside additional administrative information. Whilst the new requirements will require more time and input to complete, Swanson Reed views the changes as positive since Applicants must explicitly assert how their activities are eligible under the legislation. Swanson Reed recommends that all applicants spend sufficient time addressing the requirements of the expanded application […]

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