How Would You Even Know About the R&D Tax Incentive for Your Company?

Is it just another thing we’re all expected to know?

The R&D Tax Incentive is one of the Australian Government’s most valuable programs for supporting innovation. Yet, it’s still common for businesses to only hear about it years after they’ve already been conducting eligible work or sometimes too late to claim.

A question we often hear is “How would businesses even know about this?” It’s a fair question, and one we think about a lot as we try to educate and raise awareness.

Why so many businesses miss out.
Running a business is demanding. Between product development, managing staff, dealing with customers, and staying on top of regulatory obligations, it’s easy for something like the R&D Tax Incentive to slip through the cracks.

While general accountants and advisers are becoming better at raising it, it’s still not always front-of-mind unless:

They specialise in R&D tax work, or
You’re already in an industry where R&D claims are common (e.g., software, biotech, advanced manufacturing).

This means companies in sectors like food production, construction, agri-tech, or even mining services often don’t realise that the problem-solving work they do can qualify as R&D for the Tax Incentive.

What work qualifies?
If you’re wondering whether you’re already doing eligible R&D, here are three key questions to ask:

Were the outcomes genuinely uncertain when you started? Not just commercially risky, but technically or scientifically unknown to a competent professional.
Were you systematic in how you approached the work? Experimenting, testing, comparing results. Not just doing business as usual.
Were you generating new technical knowledge, not just following a known method? The work should resolve a knowledge gap, not just implement an existing solution.

If you answer “yes” to these, you may already be conducting eligible R&D, even if you’ve never thought of it that way.

Why early awareness matters.
Many businesses find out about the R&D Tax Incentive after the fact, which leads to two common problems:

You can only claim for work done in the current and prior income year, so delayed awareness can permanently reduce potential benefits.
Retrospective claims often rely on reconstructed records, which increases compliance risk. As the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) frequently stresses, contemporaneous documentation (records kept as you go) is key.

Setting up even basic processes early can make your claim far stronger and reduce the risk of questions during a review.

So, are you expected to know this and all the detail?
No, but to an extent. Business owners and innovators aren’t expected to be tax experts. Your focus is rightly on solving technical problems and delivering outcomes.

But knowing when to ask the question is crucial. If you’re doing work that involves constant adjustment, unknwon variables, risk, error, or technical problem-solving, it’s worth checking whether the R&D Tax Incentive applies.

And if you’re unsure, that’s where specialists come in. Our role is to help you identify eligible activities, document them properly, complete the calculations, and make sure your claim stands up.

Final thoughts.
If you’re developing something new or improving a process in a way that wasn’t straightforward, take a moment to ask:

Could this be R&D under the Tax Incentive definition?
Are we documenting it properly?
Should we ask for help?

It’s one of the few programs designed to actively encourage experimentation and innovation in Australia, so it’s worth making the most of it.

If you’d like to talk through whether your work might qualify or need help setting things up properly from the start, feel free to get in touch. This is exactly what we specialise in, and we’re here to help.