| Date of effect | 1 July 2022 |
Income derived from Australian medical and biotechnology patents will be taxed at a concessional effective corporate tax rate of 17% from 1 July 2022 under a new $206m ‘patent box’ tax regime.
Only granted patents, which were applied for after the Budget announcement, will be eligible and development will need to be domestic. That is, the patent box rewards companies to keep their IP within Australia. The preferential tax rate applies to income due to the patent and not from manufacturing, branding or other attributes.
The patent box concept is new to Australia but exists in twenty or so other countries including the UK and France. The Government will follow the OECD’s guidelines on patent boxes to ensure the patent box meets internationally accepted standards, and will consult with the industry on the design.
If effective, this same concept may also be applied to the clean energy sector.
