Who R&D activities are conducted for

Read the details of who is entitled to the R&D tax offset resulting from incurring expenditure on R&D activities.

Conducted for requirement

To claim this expenditure the R&D activity must also be conducted for you. In some cases, the activity can be conducted for a foreign entity that is connected or affiliated with you. You cannot claim the expenditure if the activity is conducted, to a significant extent, for another entity that would not be eligible to claim expenditure on the activity. For example, if the R&D activity is conducted for you but is conducted to a significant extent also for a trust, you cannot claim expenditure incurred on those activities. This requirement also prevents duplication of claims by different entities for the same R&D activities.

An R&D activity is conducted for the entity that receives the major benefit of the activity. This is assessed by considering who:

• 'effectively owns' the know-how, intellectual property or other similar results arising from your company's expenditure on the R&D activities
• has appropriate control over the way the R&D activities are conducted
• bears the financial burden of carrying out the R&D activities.

Whether an R&D activity is conducted for your company is a matter of fact. It is determined by whether the activity is conducted, in substance, to provide the majority of knowledge benefits resulting from the activity, such as, access to intellectual property to your company.

Effective ownership of results

To decide whether a company has effective ownership you must look at:

• the circumstances in which R&D activities are conducted
• what practical, as well as formal, rights the company has to the results from those activities, such as, know-how and intellectual property.

Having effective ownership does not necessarily mean that your company is the proprietor of a piece of intellectual property in any formal sense. Such rights may not be available, or the formal owner of the resulting intellectual property may hold it on such terms that the company has all of the advantages of formal ownership. For example, it might have the right to use a patent over the R&D results, without further fee or payment, for the expected useful life of the patent.

You may give some theoretical rights of ownership, in relation to intellectual property or results, to others without denying your effective ownership of them. For example, you might completely control the commercial results of R&D activities, yet permit the contract researcher some exclusive scientific publication rights.

Control of R&D activities

R&D activities may often be carried out under contract by experts in a particular field. A company may still have an appropriate degree of control over the conduct of the R&D activities in these circumstances if it can:

• choose the project of R&D
• decide on major changes of direction in those activities
• stop an unproductive line of research
• decide whether to follow up an unexpected result
• decide to end the project.

Who bears the financial risk

If R&D activities are carried out for a company, we would generally expect that the company would bear the financial risk of the R&D activities. If a company does not bear the financial risk, but effectively owns the results of R&D activities and controls the way the activities are carried out, we may still regard the activities as being carried out for the company. However, a company's notional deduction may be reduced under either of the following provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997):

• section 355-405 (Expenditure not at risk)
• section 355-440 (Clawback of R&D recoupments).

An example of an R&D entity bearing the financial risk in relation to R&D activities is where both of the following apply:

• The activities are merely incidental to the supply of a saleable product for a fixed price.
• That price bears no relationship to the extent of R&D activities the entity may need to conduct to produce the product.

An R&D entity is not entitled to a notional deduction under Division 355 of the ITAA 1997 for R&D expenses it incurs, if all of the following apply:

• It conducts the R&D activities under contract for another entity.
• It does not own the results of the R&D activities.
• It does not bear the financial risk of the R&D activities it conducts because it can recoup its expenditure on those activities irrespective of whether they produce successful results.

Foreign corporations and permanent establishments

If certain conditions are met, your company may be eligible for the R&D tax incentive for R&D activities conducted for one or more associated foreign corporations.

For more information about R&D activities being conducted for a foreign corporation, and foreign corporations carrying on business through a permanent establishment, refer to section 'Eligibility' in Research and development tax incentive.

Contact us

For information on eligible entities and how to claim the incentive:

• phone us on 13 28 66 between 8:00 am and 6:00 pm Monday to Friday.

Contact AusIndustry

For information on registration, eligibility of R&D activities and findings, you can contact AusIndustry by:

• phone on 13 28 46
• submitting an email enquiry External Link

Refer to Contact us on the business.gov.auExternal Link website for the full list of contact details.

Read the details of who is entitled to the R&D tax offset resulting from incurring expenditure on R&D activities.