R&D Tax Is A Battlefield – Care To Lob A Grenade?
The new Federal Government has declared war – war on inflation; war on Work Choices; war on everything. No, wait, that’s “The Chaser”. But included in the Government’s campaign is an offensive to improve the national innovation system along with the design and delivery of the armada of innovation assistance programs (169 of the buggers at last count).
The R&D tax concession is squarely in its sights and the slogan of the new Industry Minister, Senator Kim Carr, is:
“A New and Improved R&D Tax Concession with No Losers”.
This means that a number of targets have been identified – higher rates of deduction; premiums that work; offsets that are fairer – and every person and his/her proverbial pooch will be thinking about having a say on these and other matters.
We say “Don’t just think about – act on it!”. The next six months represent a golden opportunity to address so many of the issues that we talk (and whinge) about with our clients, other advisers and government. We can’t (and won’t) let this one slip by.
MJA has already been invited to participate in the working group charged with reforming the R&D Tax Concession. We are fully available to help put your concerns in front of the Minister and his team.
We will be contacting all our clients to gather their views in the next few weeks. However, the battle will be lost if corporates take a back seat in the review. If you want a seat at the table, we will do our best to make that happen. Contact us now and we will get the ball rolling.
As soon as more details about how to be involved come to hand, we will send out another update. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the first general stakeholder meetings in March.
Consider this a call to arms. The R&D Tax Concession wants you!
