You might qualify for the research and development grant if you are a company trying to create something new. To qualify for the refundable tax offset you need to:

• Have an aggregated turnover of less than $20m
• Spend at least $20,000 on research and development in the financial year
• Be a company
• Be carrying out the research and development activities in Australia
• Apply within 10 months of the end of the financial year

You might be doing research and development if:

• You are working on something that is new (i.e. no competitors)
• You are working on something that involves some degree of experimentation (it hasn’t been done before)
• You are working on something that is uncertain (i.e. you have the idea and you are trying to implement it but you don’t know if you will be able to pull it off for technological reasons)

You will receive 43.5% of what you spend on research and development back. So let’s say you spend $100,000 on the research and development grant and your company has no income because it is in development phase, you will receive a refund of $43,500. All associated costs can be claimed, including paying staff (who are working on R&D) and a proportion of overheads (e.g. rent, electricity). There are some types of spending that are not claimable (e.g. interest).