In January 2014, a number of submissions were made by interested parties on the changes proposed by the Tax Laws Amendment (Research and Development) Bill 2013.
The Bill amends the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to deny access to the research and development tax incentive for companies with aggregated assessable income of $20 billion or more for an income year. The intention is to better target the R&D tax incentive to businesses that are more likely to increase their R&D spending in response to government incentives, thereby delivering a greater return for taxpayers. However, there has been concern that there may be an adverse impact on large companies and their investment in R&D in Australia, and the spill over benefits to Australian science and technology that result from such investment.
The submissions can be found here. The report on the submissions and their possible impact is due on 17 March 2014.