Most claimants only ever deal with AusIndustry. In law, though, the decisions belong to a board, Industry Innovation and Science Australia, and that shapes how findings work and how to challenge them.
What IISA decides
Under Part III of the Industry Research and Development Act 1986, IISA:
- registers companies for core and supporting activities each year (section 27A);
- makes findings about applications and registrations (sections 27B and 27J);
- makes advance findings (section 28A) and overseas findings (section 28C);
- registers Research Service Providers (section 29A);
- issues determinations on how it uses its powers (section 31D), such as the Clinical Trials Determination 2022.
The board describes itself as entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and educators, and it oversees programs through committees. Day to day, its powers pass by delegation, first to a committee or staff (section 21) and from a committee to staff (section 22A). That is how AusIndustry officers come to make the decisions.
Why the name matters
Earlier names were Innovation Australia and then Innovation and Science Australia; the current name dates from a 2021 amendment to section 6, which continued the same body under the new name. Decisions made under the older names are therefore the same body's decisions, which matters when reading older tribunal cases such as JLSP and Innovation Australia in 2016.
How its findings affect your claim
A finding about a registration made within 4 years after the end of the income year binds the ATO for that year's assessment. A registration on its own is not a finding. Reviewable decisions go first to internal review, requested within 28 days and deemed to confirm the decision if not decided within 90 days, then to the Administrative Review Tribunal. Body by Michael [2025] ARTA 44, the Tribunal's first R&D Tax Incentive decision, was a review of an IISA decision.