Too good

So this chicken farm was successfully claiming it’s efficiency improvement program as an R&D tax expense.

I don’t know how because they have set up the R&D tax rules based on the OECD Frascati Manual which is very scientific and narrow. It is very much focused on whether companies are carrying out experiments using physical sciences that cannot be solved by existing knowledge or a competent professional, i.e. almost the same threshold as patentability

In any case, having escaped the lion’s den, last year the chicken company went back for it’s hat; they amended their 2012 R&D tax claim to include more costs associated with chicken feed in it’s so-called experiments.

This caused all their previous returns to be reexamined and all their claims were voided (money back mate), and they were penalised.

I guess the ATO just sent a message to the rest of us.