Posted By: R&D SmartTax

Tuesday 16th August 2011 is the date many are expecting Australia’s New R&D Tax Credit program to finally come before the Senate. This is almost 12 months after the first draft of the legislation came before the House of Representatives in September 2010.

With the Department of Innovation Industry Science and Resources Minister Kim Carr having proclaimed an official start date of the New R&D Tax Credit as 1 July 2011, the Senate session in August is expected to finally provide the means for the upper house to pass the two bills required to put the New R&D Tax Credit in motion.

However even at this late stage there is still some uncertainty as to what format the legislation will take. Latest talks with members of Senator Carr’s ministry as well as Treasurer Wayne Swan’s team suggest that while many of the key aspects of the new program such as the 45% and 40% rates of the credit will not change, other important areas such as the feedstock provisions may still have time for adjustment.

The scope and application of the proposed feedstock provisions may effectively prevent many manufacturing activities that are being claimed under the current R&D Tax Concession and R&D Tax Offset programs, from being eligible in the New R&D Tax Credit.

At a point in time where the Federal Government is trying to encourage support for Australian manufacturing industry in the wake of the proposed Carbon Tax, such restrictions could prove to be a double whammy for many small to medium businesses.

Until the final format is known however, the advice of all the experts continues to be “business as usual”.

Are you confident that you are maximising all you can claim in your 2011 R&D Tax Claim? R&D SmartTax has all the up-to-date tools and templates to ensure your business gets every cent it is entitled to. Click Here to view the Template Package now.

About R&DSmartTax

R&D SmartTax tools were born out of a desire to help the many smart small Australian companies access the R&D Tax Break benefits without the need for hours spent reading tax literature or expensive consultant fees. The R&D Eligibility Wizard is designed to be low cost, easy to use and available for all Australian industries.

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