What “contemporaneous documentation” means for the R&D Tax Incentive

What contemporaneous documentation means

Contemporaneous documentation is evidence created while R&D activities are planned and conducted — not reconstructed afterwards at claim time. For the R&D Tax Incentive (RDTI), it is the record, made as the work happens, of the technical unknown an activity set out to resolve, the experiments run to resolve it, the results, and how each cost ties back to the activity that incurred it.

The word does a lot of work: contemporaneous means "made at the time". A note written in March about an experiment run in March is contemporaneous. A narrative assembled in October to justify that same experiment is not — even if it describes the work accurately.

Why the regulators weight it so heavily

The RDTI is a self-assessed program. A company registers its activities with the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR/AusIndustry), claims the offset through the ATO, and the claim can be reviewed afterwards — sometimes years later. At that point, the only thing standing between a claim and an adjustment is the evidence behind it.

The ATO and AusIndustry have consistently stated that R&D entities should keep records at the time the activities are conducted, because records made contemporaneously are the most reliable evidence of what was actually done. This expectation has been tested and upheld at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, including in Tier Toys Limited v FC of T [2014] AATA 156 and Ozone Manufacturing Pty Ltd v FC of T [2013] AATA 420, where reconstructed or insufficient records did not support the activities claimed. (ATO — Helping you get R&D claims right)

Reconstructed documentation is permitted. It is simply given less weight, precisely when weight matters most — during an examination.

What a contemporaneous record actually shows

For each R&D activity, contemporaneous records typically capture four things:

1. The technical unknown. The hypothesis or specific hurdle you set out to resolve, recorded before the work, including why existing knowledge or methods could not resolve it.
2. The experiments, dated. The systematic progression of work — what you tried, the iterations, and the attempts that failed — logged as it happened.
3. The results and conclusions. What each experiment showed, and how it informed the next step.
4. The link to expenditure. Which costs (labour, contractors, consumables) were incurred on which activity.

This mirrors the legislative test for a core R&D activity: a systematic progression of work — hypothesis, experiment, observation, evaluation, logical conclusions — directed at an outcome that could not be known or determined in advance. (business.gov.au — Assess if your R&D activities are eligible)

Retrospective vs contemporaneous

The mechanics of a claim do not change. The strength of the evidence behind it does.

What counts as a record

Contemporaneous evidence is not a single mandated document — it is whatever, made at the time, demonstrates the technical hurdle and the work to overcome it. AusIndustry's software sector guidance points to ordinary work artefacts as acceptable, including "spike tickets or investigation tasks, design notes, architecture decision records, emails and chat messages, test plans and outputs." (business.gov.au — Software development sector guide)

The point is not to generate new paperwork. It is to retain, in dated and structured form, the records the work already produces — before they are lost, overwritten, or left to memory.

Dossio is infrastructure for exactly this: capturing R&D evidence in structured, dated, audit-ready form as the work happens, with R&D tax experts providing oversight and governance.

Sources

• ATO — Helping you get R&D claims right
• business.gov.au — Assess if your R&D activities are eligible
• business.gov.au — Software development sector guide for the R&D Tax Incentive