That's not actually allowed, it's meant to be research with an "unknown outcome" or some similar wording. But lots of companies ignore yhat and claim regardless.

Interpreting that is my least favourite part of the R&D tax incentive - as far as I'm concerned practically everything has an unknown outcome. I can't figure out what we're doing in software and sometimes that even stretches to include after a product has been built. Most ideas have been had before in some form or another - it is just nobody at this company knows about it.

But genuine R&D would look very similar. There isn't a good test to distinguish "I don't know how to do this thing" from "nobody knows how to do this thing". I don't have the time, resources or inclination to know what everyone else knows. And then having to second guess what the tax office thinks everyone knows, because I know they'd accept some of the things I'm doing as research. It just isn't clear where they think the line is.

Yeah, playing with the wording for the claim is always fun :)

How the huge mining companies get away with claiming so much is beyond me. But they do.

Wait so if I'm a software dev in Australia whose hours are classified as R&D, and my employer pays a 20% tax rate, can I file my withholdings reduced by 80% too?

It's a process where you claim the rebate from the government. You need to have an ABN, and I think be incorporated (? not sure). And then, yes, you can claim away to your heart's content.