R&D tax incentive support for Gold Coast businesses.
Understand activity eligibility, prepare your registration and tax schedule, and connect the claim to supporting records.
Get in touchCurrent rules, checked September 2026
- Eligible smaller companies: company tax rate plus 18.5 percentage points, subject to the refundable-offset conditions
- Register with AusIndustry within 10 months of year end — 30 April for June balancers
- Eligible activities require genuine technical uncertainty and systematic experimentation
- The additional premium does not apply to eligible expenditure above $150 million
Who this suits
Gold Coast and Queensland companies doing real development work — software, manufacturing, engineering, agtech, food science — that have either never claimed, or want their claims prepared conservatively enough to sleep at night. If the work does not qualify, we say so; a defensible no is worth more than an indefensible refund.
Related: grants advisory · taxation
Keep proposed reforms separate from your current claim
The Government announced changes intended to start on 1 July 2028, including a higher refundable-offset turnover threshold and changes to support for core and supporting activities. Those future settings should not be applied to a current-year claim. Check the official programme updates before planning later expenditure.
What to bring to the first discussion
Bring your company structure and turnover, financial year end, project descriptions, technical records and an expenditure breakdown. Separate routine delivery work from experiments where the technical outcome could not be determined in advance. Registration and the tax calculation are distinct steps; both need consistent records.
For example, configuring a standard software integration does not become eligible just because it is new to your business. A documented experiment addressing an unresolved technical problem needs an assessment of its activities and evidence. This is an illustration, not a client case study or an eligibility decision.
Meet the accounting team or discuss your project and the scope of a quote.
FAQ
R&D tax incentive questions, answered
How much is the R&D tax incentive worth?
For eligible companies with aggregated turnover below $20 million, the refundable offset is the company tax rate plus 18.5 percentage points: 43.5% if the company tax rate is 25%. Companies controlled by income-tax-exempt entities cannot use this refundable component. Other eligible companies use a non-refundable offset with intensity-based premiums. Expenditure above $150 million receives the company tax rate without the additional premium.
What is the R&D registration deadline?
You must register your R&D activities with AusIndustry within 10 months of your year end — for a standard 30 June year, that means 30 April the following year. Miss it and the year’s claim is generally lost, so if you think last year’s work might qualify, check well before April.
Is my software development eligible for the R&D tax incentive?
Sometimes — and this is the area with the most grey. Routine development, configuration and bug-fixing are not eligible; work that involved genuine technical uncertainty resolved through systematic experimentation can be. The test is about how you worked and what records show it, not how innovative the product feels. We assess honestly — including telling you when a claim is not supportable.
What records do I need for an R&D claim?
Keep records as the work happens: the technical question, hypotheses, experiments, observations and conclusions, alongside staff time and expenditure records. The records should connect claimed activities to eligible costs and explain what was known before the experiment. A project description written only at tax time may not provide enough support for the claim.
Can I claim both a government grant and the R&D tax incentive for the same project?
Often both can apply to one project, but not doubled on the same dollar — grant-funded expenditure generally triggers clawback adjustments to the R&D benefit. The interaction is calculable, and it is exactly the kind of question to settle before accepting a grant, not at tax time.
Do I need a consultant, and what do you charge?
You can prepare your own registration and claim. If you want assistance, ask us for a written scope covering activity eligibility, registration, the tax schedule and record review. The quote should identify whether follow-up questions or an audit response are included. Using a consultant does not remove the company’s responsibility for an accurate, supported claim.