INNOVATION GIVES 200 MILLION EUROS IN FISCAL BENEFITS TO COMPANIES

Applications for the Tax Incentive System for Research & Development are already opened. Authorities estimate that last year's total allocation was higher than in previous years.

Applications to SIFIDE - Tax Incentive System for Research & Development have already opened for the fiscal year of 2018 and may bring savings to companies that bet on innovation. The regime allows deducting innovation expenses in collecting the Income Tax of Collective Persons (IRC) and fiscal benefits can reach 200 million euros, according to the news on Tuesday, by Jornal de Negócios (paid access).

The tax benefits are granted according to the applications and under the approval of the National Innovation Agency (ANI). Companies that want to apply for SIFIDE have until May 31 to do so. The number of candidates has grown in a sustainable way "time after time" and is "currently close to 1,500" a year, explained the president of the agency, Eduardo Maldonado.

The ANI president also said that the fiscal bonus for 2017 is not yet closed, thus the credit of 183 million euros already allocated may still increase. He added that the total "should approximate the usual, that is, about 90%, of the total requested, and higher than the value obtained in previous years." In 2016, approved companies received 209.4 million euros in fiscal credits that can be used over the next eight years.

It is possible to recover up to 82.5% of R & D costs in the previous year, through the base rate of 32.5% and an incremental rate of 50% of the increase in expenditure when related to the two-year average, up to a limit of 1,5 million euros. For SMEs with less than two years, it is applied a 15% increase to the base rate, corresponding to a deduction of 47,5%.