GAC Group Singapore R&D International Consulting: Innovation News

Below, you will find out about opportunities to improve your savings and results and receive a few of our tips to finance your innovation.

We wish you a pleasant reading!

PIC SCHEME

Optimize your PIC claims!

Did you know that companies can combine for YA 2013 to YA 2015 the yearly cap for each qualifying activity at S$ 400k? Companies are allowed to claim up to S$ 1,2M of eligible expenses for each qualifying activity by combining the three Years of Assessment. For example, if you haven’t claimed R&D costs in YA 2013 and YA 2014, you can claim up to S$ 1,2M of R&D costs in YA 2015. Do not miss this opportunity to optimize your savings!

PIC Bonus: get it while you can

The PIC Bonus is a S$ 15,000 dollar-for-dollar matching cash bonus on top of the PIC cash payout and the enhanced tax deduction available for YA 2013 to 2015. The PIC scheme will remain active at least until 2018. It is still time to get the PIC Bonus by optimizing your PIC Claims for YA 2015.

PUBLIC FUNDING IN SINGAPORE

Innovation Capability Voucher (ICV)

ICV is a public financing tool for local SMEs helping them to purchase integrated IT solutions and to get access to consultancy services for innovation, productivity, HR and finance management. Local businesses can get up to S$ 40,000 with 8 different vouchers.

iSprint Funding for Intermediate Packaged Solutions

This funding program initiated by IDA for local SMEs reimburses up to 70% of the buying cost of numerous pre-approved packaged solutions up to S$ 20,000 as well as consultancy and training costs related to packaged solutions such as SaaS, PoS, Accounting Management Systems, etc.

GAC EXPERTISE

Assistance to IRAS technical queries

More and more companies have seen their claims rejected or challenged by IRAS. It requires a specific expertise to claim technical staff salaries and outsourced R&D projects under the PIC scheme. We were expecting an increase of the controls, as it happened in other countries, with similar schemes. Make sure to secure your R&D tax credits by following all regulations and expectations from IRAS to avoid troubles and delays in the process.

R&D Tax Credits

From IRAS perspective, R&D includes the notion of innovation whereas it is excluded in OECD definition. Several countries use the OECD R&D definition for R&D tax credits, such as France, England or Canada. In Singapore, the definition of R&D is broader and therefore, the notion of eligible R&D activity of the PIC is larger than scientific research and is not limited to lab work and PhDs teams. Our consultants are R&D experts with either a MSc or a PhD who successfully claimed R&D projects in different fields such as Software Development, SaaS, Energy, E-commerce, Microsystem, Healthcare, Water, Big Data, Web technologies, etc.

GLOBAL NEWS

Singapore is becoming a global IP hub

The government has been implementing effective tax measures to encourage the anchoring of intellectual property in Singapore for the past few years. By helping companies finance acquisition and registration of Intellectual Property Rights through the PIC scheme, among other initiatives, the objective of the Government is to help Singapore become a global IP hub in Asia.

Top 20 Hottest Startups

Released in the Singapore Business Review, the Singapore's Hottest Startups 2015 awards the most innovative startups in the country. Five of our clients are ranked in this top 20! This shows the strong links between GAC and the technology-oriented startups ecosystem of Singapore. We help innovative companies finance their technical projects by claiming the salaries of their technical teams through the PIC scheme.