View a walk-through of the customer portal

Our video on how to register your R&D activities for the R&D Tax Incentive takes you step-by-step through the registration process. It’s designed to make using the portal easier, faster and more efficient. The video uses software-specific examples but the process to register your R&D activities is the same no matter which sector you are in. We recommend viewing this video well before your registration deadline, especially if registering for the first time.

The video has chapters that you can refer back to as you progress through your application. Use the video progress bar, or click the bolded headings in the transcript to find the chapter you want to view. If you’re watching on YouTube you can find the chapter links in the video description.

How to register your R&D activities for the R&D Tax Incentive

Portal access for yourself as principal authority

As a principal authority of a company, you must first link your myGovID to the company's ABN. You must do this before you can authorise access to the customer portal for yourself or anyone else.

If this has not been done for your business before, you can do this yourself as a principal authority:

You can find additional help and support on the Relationship Authorisation Manager help page including contact details.

Authorising portal access for your staff

The principal authority or authorisation administrator for your company will need to authorise staff to access the customer portal. This will make them an authorised user.

  1. Request the staff member to set up their myGovID.
  2. Ask the staff member for their full name as used for their myGovID, as well as their preferred email address for access code.
  3. Login to the ATO's Relationship authorisation manager (RAM).
  4. Authorise the staff member's personal myGovID to work on behalf of the company using RAM. See set up authorisations and manage authorisations for more details.
  5. Inform the staff member that they have been authorised and will receive an authorisation code which they need to activate in RAM within 7 days. Once activated they'll be able to login to the R&DTI customer portal.

You can find additional help and support on the Relationship Authorisation Manager help page including contact details.

Authorising portal access for an individual tax agent or R&D consultant

The principal authority or authorisation administrator for your company will need to authorise the individual tax agent or R&D consultant to access the customer portal. This will make them an authorised user.

  1. Request the individual tax agent or R&D consultant to set up their myGovID.
  2. Ask the individual tax agent or R&D consultant for their full name as used for their myGovID, as well as their preferred email address for access code.
  3. Login to the ATO's Relationship authorisation manager (RAM).
  4. Authorise the individual tax agent or R&D consultant's personal myGovID to work on behalf of the company using RAM. See set up authorisations and manage authorisations for more details.
  5. Inform the individual tax agent or R&D consultant that they have been authorised and will receive an authorisation code which they need to activate in RAM within 7 days. Once activated they'll be able to login to the R&DTI customer portal.

If no one else has been linked to your company before, the principal authority will need to get portal access first.

You can find additional help and support on the Relationship Authorisation Manager help page including contact details.

RAM provides access at a departmental level

Individuals who have been authorised in RAM for one service from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources will also have access to all your other services from the same department. These services include the:

  • Business Registration Service
  • Climate Active Portal
  • Commercial Building Disclosure Assessor Portal
  • R&DTI customer portal. 

All staff granted portal access will have visibility of all information in the portal.

You should review 'Manage authorisations' in RAM for guidance on editing or removing an authorisation.

Authorising portal access for a tax agency or R&D consultancy

The principal authority or authorisation administrator of your company can authorise access of a tax agency or R&D consultancy by using the Manage access option in the R&DTI customer portal.

  1. Login to the R&DTI customer portal.
  2. Click the 'Manage access' option on the 'Manage your applications' dashboard.
  3. Click 'Add new authorisation' on the 'Manage Access' screen, under the 'Business authorisations' heading.
  4. Enter the ABN for the tax agency or R&D consultancy you want to authorise.
  5. Select 'Tax professional' as the relationship.
  6. Enter the start and end dates for the authorisation period. Note the start date can't be back dated.
  7. Click 'Add authorisation'.
  8. Inform the tax agent or R&D consultant they can now log in to the R&DTI customer portal.

If no one else has been linked to your company before, the principal authority will need to get portal access first.

Manage access gives all authorised staff access to your portal

Giving access to a tax agency or consultancy will allow all authorised staff within that tax agency or consultancy to access your information in the portal.

They'll be able to view all information in the portal.

Help for tax agents

Understand how to access the customer portal as an individual tax agent or R&D consultant.

YouTube

Learn how to access the customer portal as a tax agency or R&D consultancy.

YouTube

Guidance for applications

Some of the fields and features in the application for registration form are explained in this list.

Some fields will pre-fill, but only if your draft application is created after a previous application has been submitted through the portal.

Pre-filled fields include:

  • Company details
  • Contact details
  • Projects and activities (descriptions of the activities conducted will need to be completed).

The portal only pre-fills projects/activities that have an end date in, or after, the ‘new’ income period. If your projects/activities extend beyond previously submitted dates you will need to update their names.

There are character limits for Project and Activity sections. Character limits are shown at the bottom right corner of the text fields. Some fields also have a minimum number of characters. The character limit includes spaces and line breaks. As you enter text the character count is updated.

For a complete list of character limits see the Guidance on application questions.

To download a PDF copy of your draft application at any time, go to the dashboard, click on the three dots to the right of the application and select ‘Download draft to PDF'.

You must make any requests for extensions of time to lodge an application for registration in the portal. You can do this once a draft application is created.

Applications received after the deadline are deemed late and will not usually be accepted. There are rules around when a late application can be granted.

For more information see the Lodging a late application page.

Make sure you create your application for registration under the correct financial year on the dashboard.

If you submit under the wrong financial year, you'll need to withdraw and re-submit your application. You'll then need to re-enter the details in the description fields for core and supporting activities.

You don’t need to complete your application for registration all at once. You must complete and save all mandatory fields before you can enter data into the other sections, these mandatory fields include:

  • registration type
  • company details
  • contact details
  • application inclusion pages.

Once these sections have a green tick you can then enter data into the other sections of the form. You edit these sections any time before you submit.

The project and activities sections can be saved once the name field has been filled, allowing the other sections to be completed at a later date.

If you leave your portal page open and inactive for 60 minutes or more you’ll be automatically logged out and any unsaved data will be lost.

The portal allows you to request a variation to submitted applications for registration, but these do take time to process.

All applicants and tax agents should carefully review all application data prior to submission. This will minimise the need for variation requests.

To request a withdrawal of your application for registration submitted via the portal:

  • go to the dashboard, click on the three dots to the right of the application you wish to withdraw. A drop-down menu will appear with the option to withdraw
  • fill in the details and then submit your request.

We've produced guidance to help you learn more about the application questions in the customer portal.

You may find it useful to review these before you start your first application.

Guidance on application questions

pdf · 0.50 MB docx · 0.86 MB

Start an application in the customer portal

Apply to register with the R&D Tax Incentive

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