Why contemporaneous records make or break an R&D Tax Incentive claim for AI work, and what to keep from day one.
dgm is an independent osFoundry integration partner — not affiliated with osFoundry’s maker (OS LLC), and dgm has no completed client integrations yet.
Contemporaneous records make or break an R&D Tax Incentive claim for AI work. Knowing what to keep from day one protects the claim.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| What to keep | Records of the uncertainty, hypotheses, experiments, results |
| When | Created at the time the R&D is done, not later |
| Why | Substantiates the claim if reviewed by the ATO/AusIndustry |
| Who lodges | You or a registered R&D tax adviser |
Why records matter
The R&D Tax Incentive requires contemporaneous records — created at the time the R&D is done — to substantiate a claim. For AI, that means recording the technological uncertainty you faced, the hypotheses you tested, the experiments run and the results, plus how time and cost mapped to eligible activities. Reconstructed-after-the-fact records are weak if reviewed.
What good records look like
Practical habits: tag experimental work in your project tracker, keep design notes and test results, separate eligible experimental work from routine programming, and log staff time against R&D activities. Program parameters, amounts, rates and round windows change frequently — confirm the current details on the official program page before relying on them.
Where dgm fits
Important: these are programs a business applies for directly with the government agency or, for the R&D Tax Incentive, claims through a registered tax adviser. dgm is an independent AI-integration agency — not a registered or approved program deliverer, an Industry Growth Program adviser, or a registered R&D tax agent. dgm can help scope and build the AI project; eligibility and any claim are determined and lodged by you or a registered adviser. dgm can help structure the project and its documentation so the genuinely experimental work is well-recorded; a registered R&D tax adviser assesses and lodges the claim.
Where dgm fits
dgm is an independent integration partner that helps Australian businesses adopt osFoundry — scoping a first use case, handling the build, and connecting AI to the systems you already run. dgm can help you scope the AI project that a program would fund — but you apply to the program (or claim the R&D Tax Incentive with a registered adviser) directly. dgm is independent of osFoundry’s maker (OS LLC) and has no completed client integrations yet, so everything described here is a service offered, not a past result. If you want to scope a practical first project, dgm can help you map it out.