Nothing in the law requires an adviser. The R&D Tax Incentive is a self-assessment program, and the department publishes guidance specifically to help companies self-assess. Here is what preparing the claim in-house involves.
What doing it yourself takes
1. Portal access. Registrations are made in the R&DTI customer portal. The company's principal authority sets up a myID, links it to the company's ABN, and authorises themselves (or staff) in the ATO's Relationship Authorisation Manager. A staff member must activate their authorisation code within 7 days.
2. The checklist. Before drafting, the department asks you to confirm that the company is an eligible R&D entity, that the activities are eligible, that any overseas work has an overseas finding, that spend is at least $20,000 (or, below that, is only amounts paid to a registered research service provider that is not an associate, or Cooperative Research Centre contributions), that records were kept, that you are within 10 months of the year end, and whether a taxpayer alert applies. For software, the alert to read is TA 2017/5.
3. The form. Each core activity needs a description, the sources investigated, the hypothesis, the experiment, why a competent professional could not have known the outcome in advance, the new knowledge sought, the evaluation and the conclusions. Six of those fields have minimum lengths. Supporting activities need their link to a core activity. The department's question guide explains each field.
4. The declaration. You declare that the application is complete and correct, that appropriate records were kept, and that the activities meet the requirements.
5. The ATO side. After registration, the company completes the R&D tax incentive schedule with its tax return, quoting the registration number. The ATO's calculator helps complete the schedule. Most companies have their accountant do this step even when they write the registration themselves.
6. Keeping the file. Keep records for five years after claiming the expenditure. If the department asks for evidence, it normally allows 30 days, with a further 14 available if you ask before they run out.
The free help is real: the eligibility pages, sector guides, the quarterly Insider newsletter and online information sessions from the department, and a phone line from the ATO. The department's service target is to process 95% of first-time applications within 40 business days; it is a target, not a promise.
When doing it yourself is the right call
- One clearly bounded core activity with hypotheses and results written down as you went.
- Someone in-house who has prepared a registration before and has the time again.
- A small claim near the $20,000 floor, where any outside fee is a large share of the benefit.
When it usually is not
DIY gets harder with several core activities and their supporting work, with expenditure spread across many people and contractors, or when nobody has time to learn the criteria. The risk is not the form; it is describing ordinary development as R&D, or missing activities that qualify. Read what counts for SaaS companies before deciding.
Where Rand sits
Rand is the middle path: your company still declares and submits, but AI drafts the registration from your GitHub, Jira, Linear and Notion records and Xero payroll, your team reviews it, and an Expert Reviewer finalises it. Either way, the registration field checker checks drafted answers against the form's limits; or compare the fully outsourced route in in-house vs outsourced.