How to claim
Amounts incurred on your R&D activities must be claimed under the R&D tax incentive. If an amount meets the eligibility requirements of the R&D tax incentive, it must be claimed under Division 355 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997).
You can't claim elsewhere
If you choose not to claim it under the R&D tax incentive, you can't claim it elsewhere in your tax return, except in certain circumstances for amounts incurred to an associate.
You can only claim a deduction under section 8-1 (or other provisions) of the ITAA 1997 if the expenditure doesn't meet the eligibility requirements under Division 355. This means that if your R&D activities are registered with AusIndustry, you can only claim your expenditure on those activities under the R&D tax incentive.
For more information, refer to section 355-715 of the ITAA 1997.
Other things you need to be aware of
If you are an eligible R&D entity and you want to claim the tax incentive, you must meet certain requirements. These requirements include that you:
- must register your R&D activities every year
- must claim your R&D tax offset by lodging a company tax return and R&D tax incentive schedule at the end of your income year
- must keep adequate records to demonstrate to AusIndustry, and to us that you carried out the eligible R&D activities and that you incurred eligible R&D expenditure for those activities
- must consider any special transitional rules that apply for situations that extend over income years where the R&D tax concession provisions and the R&D tax incentive provisions apply.
- should note that amounts that you are notionally entitled to deduct can't be actually deducted under or in relation to any other provisions.
You may need to adjust your tax return if:
- you have received a government recoupment (clawback adjustment)
- your eligible activities have produced tangible products for supply to someone else, or to be applied to your own use - other than in transforming such products for supply (feedstock adjustment)
- you are registered for GST.