An R&D Tax Incentive advisor should do more than prepare an AusIndustry application.
For startups, a strong R&D advisory service should cover the entire claim process.
Technical eligibility
The advisor should understand what your team developed and distinguish experimental R&D activities from normal commercial development.
Financial assessment
Eligible expenditure needs to be connected to the eligible R&D activities.
This can become complicated where employees, contractors, cloud infrastructure and other resources are used for both R&D and non-R&D purposes.
Evidence
Your advisor should help identify documentation supporting the claim, which may include technical reports, Jira tickets, GitHub records, emails, testing results, timesheets and financial information.
Compliance review
The claim should be challenged before it is submitted, rather than waiting for AusIndustry or the ATO to ask questions later.
Ongoing support
A good advisor should also be able to assist if a claim is subsequently reviewed or audited.
At Rimon Advisory, these responsibilities are divided across our dedicated Technical, Financial and Compliance Teams, allowing specialists to focus on their areas of expertise.
For startups, this provides an end-to-end R&D process rather than simply assistance completing forms.
