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Industry Minister Resignation and Appointment of Caretaker

September 23rd, 2021

Over the weekend, the Government announced the resignation of Christian Porter from the industry portfolio after approximately six months in the role. Energy Minister Angus Taylor will serve as acting Industry Minister for the time being. The industry portfolio has responsibility for the R&D Tax Incentive, and the programme is one of the largest budgetary expense items within the portfolio. Given the importance of the portfolio to Australia’s economy, we call on the Government to appoint a dedicated Industry Minister […]

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Promoters of Tax Avoidance Schemes Remain a Target of ATO’s Tax Avoidance Taskforce

September 20th, 2021

The ATO recently released a report titled Tax Avoidance Taskforce highlights 2020-21. The report has highlighted that: Activity over the past year achieved favourable promoter penalty outcomes in two Federal Court applications following investigations by the taskforce’s Promoters and Tax Exploitation Program, one of which involved exploitation of the R&D Tax Incentive; The ATO’s focus in the coming year will continue to be specialist large market advisors who promote and run tax avoidance schemes. The R&D tax matters identified in […]

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Government and Opposition Comments on New ABS Report on BERD

September 14th, 2021

InnovationAus has cited a new ABS report finding that business expenditure on R&D (BERD) was $18.17 billion in 2019-20, slightly below the $18.32 billion that businesses spent in 2011-12 at today’s prices. The article included comments from recently appointed Industry Minister, Christian Porter, noting that: “The increase in business expenditure on research and development of 4.2 per cent to more than $18 billion during 2019-20 is encouraging to see, especially given it includes a significant period of time affected by […]

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Consultation Around Sunsetting and Amendments to IR&D Decision-Making Principles and Regulations

September 6th, 2021

– The Industry Research and Development Act 1986 supports the administration of the Research and Development Tax Incentive. Two legislative instruments under the act are scheduled to sunset on 1 April 2022: Industry Research and Development Decision-making Principles (Decision-making Principles) Industry Research and Development Regulations (Regulations) – These principles and regulations contain rules around: Processes for lodgement of filings with AusIndustry (who administer the R&D Tax Incentive), including registration applications, overseas findings and responses to requests for information; The powers […]

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