The Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO) is aimed at promoting the growth of the digital games industry in Australia and attracting games development to Australia. Draft legislation was released to consultation this week. Deadline for feedback to government on the proposed legislation is 18 April 2022.

Given there’s been a bunch of recent policy and funding announcements that target the gamedev industry it’s timely to give an update of what’s out there:

Games: Expansion Pack fund

The latest news from Screen Australia is an initiative for funding small to medium studio’s game development that have a budget of <$500K. This is the first time since 2014 that indie devs have had direct access to federal funding. The application deadline is 28 April. The full download is on their website.

More screen time

The States are in a battle royale over who loves/supports gamedevs the most. Victoria is giving out cash while the rest are using tax rebates that piggyback off existing PDV offsets. The following are games-specific programs ordered chronologically by date of announcement.

The Federal Budget for FY21 gave a glimmer of hope for industry-led research with an announcement of an additional $2B investment in the R&D Tax Incentive. Although this is off the back of (what I assume are now moot) proposed cuts of $1.8B to the programme which the Senate review committee was (is?) meant to present their findings in the next couple of days.

If it wasn’t for the pandemic and recession we wouldn’t have anything positive to be talking about with respect to R&D, so that’s something. If the Coalition hadn’t already made the position clear in chipping away at the R&D Tax Incentive since coming into power I’d be more optimistic than where we are now.

As TechLever is interested in what happens in our own backyard, I attended the City of Maribyrnong’s November event, Innovation & Data: Smarter City, Smarter Business. Below are some takeaways from the event which all have a common theme – data is important but it’s people who really count in the end (spoiler alert, not so much).

Brook Dixon from Delos Delta hosted the evening’s talks from Victoria University, VU Hanger, Tranquil Consultancy and quick five minute ‘rev ups’ from locals WellAware, Chasing Sound and The Idea Collective.

As on our homepage, rather than recreate the wheel, the Government provides an excellent resource which provides background info and basic examples on what the R&D Tax is and how it can fit within your business.

As the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (AusIndustry) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) jointly administer the R&D tax incentive, we’ve given you the most relevant links to each for a business. And if you’re an accountant, we’ve also provided additional details just for you.

Previously we spoke about industry led collaboration in an article on Industry Growth Centres, of which there are currently six covering specific industry sectors. There is another option for linking businesses and industry with researchers to facilitate further R&D and commercialisation.

The Coalition released their antipathetic Budget for 2019-2020 a week ago. The delay in our response reflects the fact there is no news or anything of substance or relevance to our clients or focus of work.

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The guidance released by AusIndustry last week was addressed to people who have been doing the wrong thing; willingly or through ignorance of R&D legislation. There is nothing new in the guidance for those who have solid understanding of the scientific method; who claim only activities which have clear and precise technical uncertainties and which the solution is already documented in internal code repositories.

It was little over a year ago that the previous “crackdown” was at play and the take-home then is the same as now – there have been NO changes to legislation or the method in which AusIndustry or the ATO is applying guidelines to R&D Tax Incentive applications.

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First conceptualised in 2014, the Industry Growth Centres were targeting five key industry sectors over a 10-year strategy. Their whole raison d’être was to revitalise innovation in industry, that rather than be researcher-led, was directed by industry to help reduce barriers in the marketplace and create new opportunities. This would was to be actioned by purely creating a neutral centre for businesses to network and connect. When first envisaged, the “innovation precincts” all sounded all a bit too fluffy – since when do competitors work together?

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