Melbourne & the R&D Tax Credit

The introduction of an R&D tax incentive scheme in Australia will be a game-changer for innovation technologies.

So the new R&D program will provide a two-tiered level of support for companies that undertake research and development activities.

I think what we will see is a rapid expansion and acceleration of new products coming to market.

You can get a refundable credit equivalent to 45 cents in a dollar. Separate to that, for large companies there's going to be a credit equivalent to 10 cents in a dollar. For the start-up companies there was an issue around capacity to get more cash back. When they were in losses, when you're in start-up phase, it's difficult to get over that hump of having a good idea to having a great business. The idea was to provide greater tax incentives and cash benefit back to those companies so they could reinvest it back into what they were doing.

One of the very exciting things that's happening in Melbourne is the convergence of a number of key technology groups, life sciences, ICT, environmental sciences, food technology and agriculture.

Melbourne provides an innovative culture that will allow these companies to grow and expand.

We see other major projects like the bionic eye and that's very quintessentially Melbourne and this is giving great opportunity for our discovery engine to continue to develop new ideas and for companies to begin the clinical trial and commercialisation process.

The new R&D program provides a catalyst for companies that aren't already operating in Melbourne to really consider whether they should be undertaking R&D here.

Though the company may be an international company, internationally owned and international IP, if the research occurs in Australia it's eligible to apply for the R&D tax incentive.

It is meant to drive business investment. It is meant to drive investment from other countries into Australia and a greater investment on the local base. The new program provides a capacity for those companies to gain cash back for the R&D they're doing, invest back into their new products, processes and devices, and give them the best opportunity of commercialising their projects and their products into the future.

One of the big outcomes of this will see greater acceleration of our frontier technologies that are in between some of those renowned sectors that we typically operate within. And I think that's the most exciting thing that this R&D tax incentive scheme will deliver.

http://www.invest.vic.gov.au/r-n-d-tax-credit

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Melbourne
• Victoria
• Australia
• R&D tax
• tax credit
• tax incentive
• innovation
• fdi
• foreign investment
• research
• development
• Research And Development