How to claim: Australia

Two agencies, two steps. The Department of Industry, Science and Resources registers the R&D activities; the Australian Taxation Office processes the tax offset. Register your activities with the department within 10 months of the end of the income year in which the R&D took place, then claim the offset by completing the R&D tax incentive schedule with the company tax return, and keep supporting records for both. This page follows those steps in order.

Before you start

• Confirm the entity. The claimant must be an R&D entity, and the activities must be conducted for it and at its financial risk. Group structures matter: aggregated turnover, which decides refundability, counts connected entities and affiliates.
• Identify activities, not projects. Break the project into core activities, each with a hypothesis and experiment, and the supporting activities that serve them. The registration form asks for them separately.
• Check the minimum spend. At least A$20,000 of notional deductions in the income year, unless the work is done by a research service provider or is a CRC contribution.
• Set up the records. Timesheets by activity, a hypothesis note for each core activity and project codes in the ledger, from the first week of the income year rather than at registration time.
• Decide on findings. If any activity is overseas, or you want certainty on eligibility before claiming, an Overseas or Advance Finding must be applied for in the income year the activity is conducted; see the findings page.

Step by step

1. Register the activities. Apply to the department through the R&D Tax Incentive customer portal within 10 months of the end of the income year. The application describes each core and supporting activity, the new knowledge sought, the hypothesis and experiments, and the expenditure expected for each. The department issues a registration number.
2. Calculate the notional deductions. Allocate expenditure to the registered activities, apply the associate and feedstock rules, and total the notional deductions.
3. Complete the R&D tax incentive schedule. The schedule lodged with the company tax return reports the notional deductions by category, the registration number, the aggregated turnover test and the offset calculation. The offset flows into the calculation statement of the return.
4. Lodge the company tax return. The offset is claimed in the return; a refundable offset is paid as part of the assessment, and a non-refundable offset reduces tax payable with any excess carried forward.
5. Keep the records. Both agencies can review later; records for the activities and the expenditure must be kept for at least 5 years.

Forms and channels

After filing

Assessment. The ATO processes the return and pays any refundable offset as part of the assessment. There is no fixed timing commitment specific to R&D offsets, and the ATO may hold a refund while it checks a claim. A non-refundable offset that exceeds the tax payable is carried forward and shown in the following year's return.

Reviews. The department may examine the registered activities and issue a finding on whether they are eligible, which binds the ATO; the ATO may review the expenditure and the entity's eligibility. The reviews page describes both.

Amendments. A company can generally request an amendment of its assessment within 4 years, and registration can be varied within the same window. The department may extend the registration deadline in limited circumstances; late applications without an extension are refused. The deadlines page has the dates.

Illustrative example

Illustrative example. Coorong Biotech Pty Ltd, a hypothetical company with a 30 June 2026 year end and aggregated turnover of A$12 million, runs its first R&D program during the year.

Had Coorong missed 30 April 2027, there would have been no registration and no offset for the year.

Related pages

• Registration in detail
• Deadlines and amendments
• Refundable and non-refundable offsets
• Guides: running a claim
• Program: In-House Finance Team Program