How should I explain my R&D to the Government?
- Andrew Lewis
- Dec 7, 2022
- 1 min read
Businesses are often doing their R&D to achieve commercial outcomes, and there are often a whole range of challenges, risks and uncertainties in addition to the technical challenges that need R&D to solve.
But focusing on the commercial side of the project is another reason why your R&D Tax incentive registration might be targeted for scrutiny by the regulators, if your registration application says more about the commercial objectives and challenges of your development project than the R&D that you’re doing along the way.
For example, saying ‘the activities we are claiming are required to ensure a successful product in the marketplace for the company’ sounds like you’re talking about a broader scope of product development and marketing challenges that are not all going to be R&D.
It’s the sort of mistake you might make when you’re trying to work backwards and construct an R&D claim without having constructed a good R&D plan at the beginning. It can also be hard for the company’s finance officer or a Tax consultant to get a good understanding of the specific R&D activities in a project.
One of our strategies to overcome these issues is to encourage our clients to undertake their R&D planning at the beginning of the financial year, rather than try to do it all at Tax time.
R&D Certainty can help you avoid these sorts of mistakes and assist you in minimising the risks associated with preparing your RDTI claim.
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