A recent AAT Decision dated 26 April 2023 (LAKES OIL NL and INNOVATION AND SCIENCE AUSTRALIA (Taxation) ) has found a company’s registered activities were not eligible under the R&D Tax Incentive. The project under scrutiny in the case is entitled “Project 1 – LAK2006 ‘Hydraulic Fracturing Technology for Gippsland Tight Gas’”. The dispute was focused on a registration in the FY14 and FY15 period. During the case INNOVATION AND SCIENCE AUSTRALIA contended that: the activities undertaken were not experimental […]
On Wednesday 3 May, the federal government released Australia’s first National Quantum Strategy. Australian investment in quantum technologies is urgently needed, says Industry Minister Ed Husic, Australia led the world in offering postgraduate quantum physics qualifications 30 years ago, and today has more than 20 world-leading quantum companies operating in the country, but Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic warned that Australia can’t afford to be “left behind in a post-quantum world” amid unprecedented global geostrategic competition. The National […]
May 2023 will mark the Labor government’s second budget in this term, as the budget moves back to its traditional May timing. Leading into the budget time, whether the R&D Tax Incentive is effective, or should be tinkered with (including by changing it to a grant or Government assessment/merit system, rather than broad based self assessment) is often raised by some in the media, politics or academia. An article published by the AFR in late March 2023 included comments from […]
New Accelerating Commercialisation grants have been announced in March and April 2023, which are the first awarded since the new government came into power in May 2022. Unlike the R&D Tax Incentive, which is a self-assessed, eligibility-based system enshrined in the law (where if companies can prove they meet the criteria, they can access the programme), Accelerating Commercialisation grants are merit-based and awarded largely at the discretion of the government based on guiding criteria. This means that considerable time may […]