If your startup is running R&D work overseas, or you’re about to start a big project this financial year and want certainty before you spend the money, there’s a part of the R&D Tax Incentive most founders have never heard of: Advance Findings and Overseas Findings.
Most Granton clients register their R&D activities after the financial year ends, as part of the normal annual claim. Advance and Overseas Findings work differently. You apply before, or during, the year the work happens, and the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR, through AusIndustry) tells you in writing whether the activity qualifies. That certainty can be the difference between a clean claim and a drawn-out argument with the ATO eighteen months later.
Here’s what each one actually does, who needs one, and why the deadline matters more than most people realise.
Where this sits in the R&D Tax Incentive
Quick refresher first. Under the current, legislated rules, companies with aggregated turnover under $20 million can get back up to 43.5% of eligible R&D spend as a refundable offset, meaning cash back even if you’re not yet profitable. Companies above that turnover get a non-refundable offset of 38.5% to 46.5%, which reduces tax payable rather than paying out cash. Minimum eligible spend is $20,000 a year, and the standard claim is lodged with your company tax return, registered with AusIndustry by 30 April.
An Advance or Overseas Finding doesn’t replace any of that. It sits in front of it. You still register every year and you still lodge your claim with your tax return. What a Finding does is lock in the eligibility answer before you get there, for the activities it covers.
Separately, there are exposure-draft changes from the 2026 Budget that would adjust rates, thresholds and refundability from 1 July 2028. Those aren’t law yet. Nothing in this article changes if they pass, Advance and Overseas Findings are about proving eligibility, not about which rate applies once you’re eligible.
What an Advance Finding actually is
An Advance Finding is a binding decision from DISR on whether your R&D activities are eligible, made before you register your annual claim.
It covers eligibility only. It doesn’t assess or approve your expenditure, that still gets worked out at claim time, every year, the normal way. What it gives you is a locked-in answer on the question that causes the most grief with AusIndustry and the ATO: is this activity actually R&D under the legislation, or isn’t it.
A positive Advance Finding is valid for up to three years from the income year you apply in, provided the activity keeps matching the description in your application. Run a three-year project under one Finding instead of re-arguing eligibility every single year it’s registered.
If the activity changes enough that it no longer matches what AusIndustry approved, the Finding stops covering it. You’d need to reapply for the part that’s changed.
What an Overseas Finding actually is
An Overseas Finding does the same job as an Advance Finding, but for R&D conducted outside Australia.
The R&D Tax Incentive is built around Australian-based work. Overseas costs aren’t claimable at all unless you’ve got an Overseas Finding in place first. To get one, AusIndustry needs to be satisfied on four conditions:
- The overseas activity is genuine core or supporting R&D in its own right.
- It has a significant scientific link to a core R&D activity you’re running in Australia.
- It can’t be done in Australia for a real reason, such as needing access to a population, environment, equipment or facility that doesn’t exist here.
- The cost of the overseas activity is less than what you’re spending on the related core and supporting R&D activities conducted solely in Australia.
That last condition is the one that trips people up. AusIndustry won’t accept a token Australian project with a much larger overseas claim sitting behind it. The overseas spend has to stay smaller than the matching Australian work, core and supporting combined.
An Overseas Finding lasts for as long as the overseas activity it describes continues unchanged. Materially change the activity and you’re back to reapplying.
A practical example of where this applies: a medtech startup needing a clinical population or specific disease prevalence that doesn’t exist in Australia, or a hardware company needing a manufacturing facility with capability no Australian supplier has. Those are the kinds of reasons that satisfy AusIndustry. "It was cheaper overseas" is not one of them.
Why you’d bother with either one
Three reasons come up constantly with clients weighing this up.
Certainty. You find out whether the activity qualifies before you’ve spent the money on it, not eighteen months after, when a review turns up an eligibility question you can’t easily fix.
Audit protection. A positive Finding is a legally binding decision, not an opinion. If AusIndustry or the ATO comes back later, you’re pointing at a certificate, not re-arguing eligibility from a standing start.
Investor comfort. If you’re raising capital and your R&D spend is a meaningful part of the pitch, a binding government Finding carries more weight with an investor than "our adviser reckons it qualifies."
The catch: it’s a lot more work than a standard claim
This isn’t a quick form to fill in alongside your normal registration.
Bentleys, a mid-tier Australian accounting firm, estimates the preparation workload at three to six times what goes into a standard annual R&D claim. You’re writing detailed technical descriptions of the activity, setting out the hypothesis and the experimental process, and for an Overseas Finding, building the case for all four conditions above with evidence, not assertions.
AusIndustry’s own average processing time is 90 days. That’s an average, not a guarantee, and it stretches further if they come back with follow-up information requests, which happens often enough to plan around.
Getting a Finding also doesn’t replace your annual registration. You still register the R&D activities every year the project runs, Finding or no Finding.
The deadline you genuinely cannot move
This is the part that catches founders out every year.
Applications for both Advance and Overseas Findings must be lodged before the end of the income year in which you conduct, or plan to conduct, the activity. For a standard Australian financial year, that’s 30 June.
AusIndustry cannot accept late applications and cannot grant extensions, under any circumstances. A good reason or a technical error doesn’t change that.
If you started a new R&D project, or a new piece of overseas R&D, on 1 July 2026, your deadline to lodge a Finding application covering it is 30 June 2027. That sounds like plenty of time in October. Given the 90-day average processing window and the extra documentation load, waiting until May to start the application is exactly how founders run out of road and miss the cut-off entirely.
Who actually needs one
Not every client needs this. Most of Granton’s clients are better off running a standard annual claim. It’s faster to prepare, cheaper, and it covers your expenditure as well as your eligibility, which a Finding never does on its own.
An Advance or Overseas Finding earns its extra workload when:
- You’re running a large, multi-year R&D project and want eligibility locked in up front rather than re-arguing it every year it’s registered.
- You’re about to spend serious money on R&D conducted outside Australia and need certainty that those overseas costs will actually be claimable before you commit to the spend.
- You’re raising capital and investors want a binding answer on eligibility, not an adviser’s opinion.
- You’ve had AusIndustry push back on eligibility before and want to remove that risk for this project specifically.
If none of that describes your situation, a standard annual claim through the usual registration process is almost certainly the better fit, and the cheaper one.
How to apply
Applications go through the R&DTI customer portal, and Advance and Overseas Findings use the same application form, with extra sections for the overseas conditions where relevant. You’ll need the technical description of the activity, the hypothesis being tested, and, for an Overseas Finding, the evidence for why the work has to happen outside Australia and what it costs against the related Australian activity.
Given the 90-day average turnaround and zero flexibility on the 30 June cut-off, start the conversation now, while you’ve got months of runway, not weeks.
Common questions founders ask
Does a Finding guarantee my refund?
No. It only locks in eligibility for the activity it covers. Your expenditure still gets assessed at claim time, every year, the same as any other R&D Tax Incentive claim. A Finding removes the eligibility argument, not the whole process.
Can I apply partway through a project that’s already running?
Only for the part of the activity still to come. The application has to be lodged before the end of the income year in which the activity is conducted or planned, so you can’t retrospectively cover work from a year that’s already closed.
What happens if my project changes direction?
If the activity materially changes from what’s described in your Finding, the Finding no longer covers it. You’d need to lodge a fresh application describing the new scope, subject to the same 30 June cut-off for the year that change happens in.
Is this the same as the standard R&D registration?
No. You still complete the standard annual registration every year the project runs, Finding or no Finding. An Advance or Overseas Finding sits alongside that process, it doesn’t replace it.
If you’re not sure whether your project actually needs a Finding, or whether a standard claim covers you just fine, that’s exactly the kind of question worth working through before you commit to either path. Book a time at granton.io/meet and we’ll work out which one fits what you’re actually doing.
Are you ready to turn your funding aspirations into reality? At Granton, we specialize in helping individuals and businesses navigate the world of grants, offering expert guidance on grant applications and finding opportunities that best suit their needs. Whether you’re seeking funding for a startup, nonprofit, or a specific project, our team is here to assist you every step of the way. We take the guesswork out of Grant Applications, R&D Tax Incentives, and Accelerator Programs, making the process smoother and increasing your chances of success. Ready to take the next step? Book a free consultation with us today, and let’s explore how we can help you secure the grants you deserve. Visit our website at granton.io to learn more or use our contact form to get in touch. Your grant journey starts here!