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Research and Development (R&D) Tax Incentive Advisory
Your business might be doing R&D without even realising it… Innovation is a key driver of growth in Australia’s business landscape, yet many organisations underestimate just how much of their work may qualify for R&D Tax Incentives (R&DTI).
Many businesses — in manufacturing, agriculture, engineering, food production and more — miss out on R&D Tax Incentives simply because they don’t know they’re eligible.
At McKinley Plowman, we are committed to ensuring that our clients make the most of available grants and incentives for their industry, and the R&D Tax Incentives available to innovative businesses are no exception. Led by our Head of Tax, Dean Birch, our team are here to help you and your business do just that.
If your business is:
- Developing new products, processes, or software.
- Improving existing products or processes in a systematic way.
- In an industry such as manufacturing, technology, engineering, mining or exploration, biomedical, agriculture, or food production (but it can be any industry)
- Investing in innovation or technical problem-solving.
Then you may be eligible to qualify for R&DTI.
To qualify, your business must be conducting a project that addresses a genuine technical problem where the solution cannot be determined in advance using existing knowledge and is resolved through a structured process of hypothesis, testing, and experimentation. Eligible R&D activities fall into two categories defined by AusIndustry:
Core R&D Activities: These are experimental activities where the outcome cannot be known or determined in advance based on publicly available information. They involve formulating a hypothesis, testing it through experimentation, and evaluating results. Examples include:
- Developing new materials or products;
- Experimental software development;
- Process innovation;
- Scientific research; or
- Integration of technologies.
Supporting R&D Activities: These include tasks directly related to or for the dominant purpose of supporting the core experimental work. While they may not involve experimentation themselves, they must enable or support the core activity. Examples include:
- data modelling;
- design and engineering work;
- test environment setup;
- Literature reviews; and/or
- Project management and documentation.
Importantly, eligibility focuses on the nature of the work, not the industry. This means a business does not need a laboratory or a dedicated research division to qualify, an assumption that frequently holds companies back⁴. Understanding these definitions is the first step in identifying opportunities and ensuring your project structure aligns with the requirements of the program.
How we can help
Our specialists can help you and your business:
- Determining R&DTI eligibility
- Identify all eligible activities, including those often overlooked
- Prepare clear technical descriptions aligned with legislation
- Strengthen the financial component of the claim
- Implement year-round record-keeping systems
- Mitigate compliance risks by ensuring consistency between technical and financial evidence
If you’re ready to make the most of this incentive, please reach out to our team today on 08 9301 2200 or via our contact page.
Our R&D team is headed up by Dean Birch, a highly experienced tax specialist with a strong focus on the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Incentive, supported by nearly 20 years of taxation experience across public practice, industry and government-related environments. He is widely recognised for his deep technical understanding of the R&D legislation and his ability to guide clients through the complexities of eligibility, documentation and compliance.
With more than 15 years’ experience assisting clients to maximise their R&D claims, Dean works with businesses across a broad range of industries, from early-stage and innovative companies through to established corporates. His approach goes beyond preparing claims — he supports clients in developing robust R&D processes, governance frameworks and contemporaneous documentation that stand up to scrutiny and reduce risk.
Dean’s background in general tax and law provides a strong foundation for delivering comprehensive and reliable R&D advice. Combined with his technical qualifications and industry experience, including a background in geology, he brings a practical and commercially informed perspective to highly technical matters.
Having also held senior management roles within a multinational organisation in the UK, Dean has a deep appreciation for the commercial realities of innovation-led businesses. This experience allows him to align R&D tax outcomes with broader business objectives, helping clients access incentives confidently while remaining focused on growth and innovation.