S.L. 123.82 Art. 5Application to the Corporation. S.L. 372.14

(1) When a company engaged in a trade, business, profession or vocation incurs or intends to incur qualifying R&D expenditure in carrying out a research and development project it may submit to the Corporation an application for the approval of that project.

(2) Expenditure is to be treated as qualifying R&D expenditure if it falls within any of the following descriptions:

(a) personnel costs of staff employed solely on research and development to the extent that they have been correctly reported in the Payee Statement of Earnings and the Payer’s Annual reconciliation Statement prepared in terms of the Final Settlement System

(FSS) Rules;

(b) costs of instruments and equipment used solely and on a continual basis for research and development;

(c) cost of land and premises used solely and on a continual basis for research and development;

(d) cost of external consulting and equivalent services related directly to research and development, other than costs to which sub-rule (3) refers;

(e) additional overheads incurred directly as a result of research and development;

(f) other operating expenses incurred directly as a result of research and development.

(3) When the research and development project in question is a project that is, or that would be if selected, fully or partly financed by the Commission of the European Union under a framework programme, the costs of external consulting and equivalent services related directly to the preparation and submission of an application for the selection and funding of that project under the relative programme shall also be treated as qualifying R&D expenditure incurred in the carrying out of an R&D project.

(4) An application under this rule shall be made on such form as may be acceptable to the Corporation and shall -

(a) provide such particulars of the applicant as are necessary to determine whether it qualifies or not as a small or medium sized enterprise;

(b) describe the project, its purpose and the expected date of its commencement and its duration;

(c) contain a description of each item of qualifying expenditure that the applicant has incurred or intends to incur in the carrying out of the project, which items shall be grouped according to the descriptions listed in the definition of research and development given in rule 3 and to the categories of qualifying R&D expenditure listed in sub-rules (2) and (3);

(d) grant the authorisation referred to in sub-rule (5);

(e) contain such other information, breakdowns and details, and be accompanied by such documents and certifications as the Corporation may require;

(f) be made not later than three months before the company’s tax return date for the year of assessment that immediately follows the year in which the company incurs the expenditure to which the application refers.

(5) The authorisation referred to in sub-rule (4)(d) shall -

(a) grant to the Corporation and its officers access to any premises or works as the Corporation may consider necessary in order to ascertain any matter relevant to the approval of an application and the right to a deduction or tax credit under this Part;

(b) authorise the Corporation to disclose to the Commissioner any information and to pass on to the Commissioner originals or copies of any documents and records that the Corporation may have obtained in connection with the application.