After chatting with many of our clients, they all agree that surviving the 2015/16 financial year proved to be very challenging. With the economy failing to thrive local businesses sure felt the pressure. This is why the R&D Tax Incentive is so important, assisting clever Australians like yourself, to continue to grow and develop exciting products through gaining new knowledge.

Beginning the R&D collating process can be a daunting thought for businesses. So, if you haven’t already started the R&D application process, then below are some tips on how to make this stressful process a little easier.

1. Sit down, relax and grab a coffee!
2. Contact either myself or Tracy-Jayne here at R&D Business Services to organise a meeting to discuss the experimental activities which occurred in the 2015/16 financial year.
3. Before the meeting, roughly work out a timeline of events for each project. For example
07/15 – 09/15….. Initial investigation and project scoping
09/15 – 12/15….. Concept design
01/16 – 03/16….. Detailed design and manufacture of prototype
04/16 – ongoing….. In-house or field testing of first prototype manufactured.
Proposed 16/17FY activity…. feedback from testing, in-house and customer.

4. Then perhaps jot down a few dot points of the main technical difficulties/failures/successes for each experimental activity.
5. Also think about the following for each project;
a) The overall objective(s) of the project, including both research and development and commercial aims.
b) The new knowledge intended to be produced by the core activities (i.e. the experiments) in the project. Explain how it is different from current knowledge.
c) How the outcome of the activities in the project could not have been known or determined in advance on the basis of current knowledge, information or experience, advice from an independent expert or conducted literature searches etc.

If the above sounds discouraging, don’t worry, in the meeting we will go through each in greater detail. Don’t forget the non-negotiable submission deadline, companies with income period of 1st July to 30th June, must submit by 30th April the following year. Go ahead and give us a call on (07) 3207 1480 or drop us a line at admin@rdbusinessservices.com.au. An R&D tax incentive refund/credit could be just what your business needs!

Quote of the week – ‘we don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity’. Barbara de Angelis