The scam calls may include: mention of an ‘Australian Government Grants Department’ a claim of ownership of the Government’s www.grantslink.gov.au website requests for $4000.00 to ‘contribute to charities to pay off a government debt requests for a fee of $199.00 to release grant funding; and the names of prominent Australians. The Government DOES NOT cold call offering [...]
To put the government's current approach into perspective, please consider this hypothetical scenario. An Australian business decides to develop a new product and commits $1 million towards developing the required innovation. On completion of the development of this potentially world leading product they decide to explore international trade opportunities and commit $7500 towards those [...]
The Australian Government has announced funding for priority adaptation research into preparing Australia for the unavoidable impacts of climate change. The Government will invest $2 million into research addressing the impacts climate change poses to Australia’s primary industries with a further $5 million to support research focusing on the social and economic implications of climate change [...]
Australian boat manufacturers and coastal tourism operators will benefit from proposed changes to the GST allowing boat buyers to sail new, Australian-made recreational boats in our waters for up to 12 months without paying GST on the sale price. Draft legislation was released today for comment to extend, from 60 days to 12 months, under certain circumstances, [...]
The Minister for Innovation announced the membership of the new Food Processing Industry Strategy Group today. This group will play an important role in ensuring Australia’s food sector is productive, sustainable and ready for the massive growth in global food demand. Food processing is one of Australia's largest manufacturing sectors employing over 200,000 Australians and sustaining communities [...]
Obtaining grants is a highly specialised field, and there are many stages to writing a grant proposal, such as identifying the need, designing the project, determining the grant opportunities, writing the grant applications and administering funds received. To further complicate things, the processes for pursuing federal, state, and private funds are very different. Many [...]
AusIndustry has introduced a new compliance review framework based on the concept of a 'compliance continuum' for R&D Tax Claims. The new framework plans to sample around 15% of all R&D Tax applications received each year, with the objective that all applications will potentially be reviewed over a 5 year period. This new framework includes a continuum that consists [...]
The courts have consistently held that confidential information created in the course of an employee's employment belongs to the employer but what is meant by the term “in the course of employment.” Unlike copyright works and patentable inventions where ownership of the IP is important, the key issue with confidential information is how to [...]
The recent decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in HZXD v Innovation Australia [2010] AATA 879 highlights the importance of good record keeping for companies claiming benefits under the R&D Tax Concession Program. If you couple this with AusIndustry's 2011 scheduled increase in compliance activities then good record keeping is money in your pocket. From 2011 Ausindustry plan to review [...]
The long awaited and advertised R&D Tax Credit Scheme was planned to be operational from 1 July 2011. Given the delays in the passage of this legislation through the Parliament the introduction date will most likely be postponed until 1 July 2012. The legislative process for the Tax Laws Amendment (Research and Development) Bill 2010 is progressing [...]