515. Ordinance of the Federal Minister of Finance on the criteria for determining eligible research and development expenses (expenditure), on the confirmation of research and on the preparation of expert opinions by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft mbH (Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft mbH) (Research Award Regulation)

Due to § 108c of the Income Tax Act 1988-EStG 1988, BGBl. No. 400, as last amended by the Federal Law BGBl. I n ° 112/2012, and § 118a of the Federal Tax Code-BAO, BGBl. No. 194/1961, as last amended by the Federal Law BGBl. I No 112/2012, shall be arranged:

Section 1

General provisions

§ 1. (1) The establishment of a research premium is expenditure (expenditure) within the meaning of paragraphs 2 and 3 in the field of research and experimental development ( Annex I ) to basically lay down. The provisions of § 6 Z 10 and § 20 sec. 2 EStG 1988 as well as § 12 para. 2 KStG 1988 are to be applied.

(2) expenditure (expenditure) on research and experimental development ( Annex I , Part A) are:

1.		Wages and salaries for research and experimental development workers, including employers ' contributions to social security, housing subsidies and other personnel expenses (such as voluntary social benefits), and Remuneration for research and experimental development workers who work outside of a service. In the case of employees who are not exclusively engaged in research and experimental development, the share of these expenses (expenditure) corresponding to the work performance for research and experimental development will be taken into account.
2.		Direct expenditure (expenditure) and direct investments (including the acquisition of land), insofar as they serve sustainable research and experimental development.
3.		Financing expenditure (expenditure), to the extent that they are to be attributed to research and experimental development.
4.		Overhead costs, to the extent that they are to be attributed to research and experimental development.

(3) expenditure (expenditure) for research and experimental development within the meaning of this Regulation, which is awarded to third parties in accordance with Section 108c (2) (2) of the EStG 1988 (external expenditure and expenditure for research and experimental development) Development, contract research), are not expenses (expenditure) for research and experimental development within the meaning of § 108c (2) Z 1 EStG 1988.

(4) The expenditure (expenditure) for research and experimental development of a marketing year shall be in accordance with the provisions of the Anhanges II to this Regulation. The list shall contain the determination of the basis of assessment and the research premium determined from it. The list shall be submitted at the request of the discharge authority.

§ 2. (1) A research confirmation according to § 118a BAO may be issued for a research project ( Annex I , Part A, point 5). A research focus ( Annex I Part A, item 6) may not be the subject of a research confirmation.

(2) The research confirmation shall not affect a period of time which is not covered by the corresponding project report (Section 5 (3)).

Section 2

Opinion

§ 3. (1) Opinion (§ 4 and § 5) of Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft mbH (§ 1 FFG-G, BGBl. I n ° 73/2004, hereinafter referred to as 'FFG'):

1.		The assessment of the extent to which a research focus/research project resulting from the expenditure on the research premium results in the conditions of § 108c on the basis of the information disclosed by the taxable person. 2 (2) (1) of the EStG 1988.
2.		The assessment of whether non-research focus or research project related investments, according to the description in the opinion of the expert opinion, are such that they will be used sustainably for research and experimental development. .
(2) The opinion shall not include:
-		the factual determination as to whether the information disclosed is correct for a research focus/research project or investment related to research projects related to research projects or research projects, and
-		the assessment as to whether and to what extent expenditure or expenditure on research and experimental development is part of the basis of assessment for the research premium.

(3) The opinions of the FFG have to refer to those research foci/research projects or non-research project related investments for which the assessment by the FFG has been requested. The information provided by the taxable person from the request of the expert opinion forms an integral part of the opinion.

§ 4. (1) The FFG has to draw up an annual report for the assertion of a research premium for in-house research and experimental development at the request of the taxable person. The annual report shall refer to all research priorities/research projects and non-research project related investments, which result in significant expenses for the research premium.

(2) The annual report shall be requested at the FFG after the end of the marketing year for which the research premium is applied for. To this end, the main research areas/research projects and non-research project related investments are to be accurately rewritten and those in the Annex III , Part A, to disclose data and information contained in it. For one marketing year, only one annual report can be requested.

§ 5. (1) For the research project which is the subject of an application for a research confirmation pursuant to § 118a BAO, the FFG has to draw up a project report at the request of the taxable person.

(2) The project appraisal can be requested at the FFG after applying for the research confirmation for the respective research project. The request must refer to the research project, which is the subject of the application for confirmation of the research. In the request, the research project is to be precisely rewritten in terms of content; it is the (planned) total expenditure relevant to the survey according to the breakdown of the directory according to Annex II , and to be divided after marketing years, and Annex III , Part A, to disclose data and information contained in it.

(3) The project report shall relate to the duration of the project (planned), but not more than a period of time, which shall include the marketing year of the opinion of the opinion and the subsequent three marketing years. At the end of this period, a new project report can be requested for the same project.

§ 6. The preparation of annual reports and project appraisals is free of charge for the taxpayer.

§ 7. (1) The FFG has the power to assist external experts in the preparation of expert opinions in individual cases.

(2) The following shall apply to the recovery of an external reviewer:

1.		As external reviewers, only the following may be used:
a)			persons who are demonstrably acting as authorised experts in the field of expertise to be assessed, or
b)			Organizations that perform comparable tasks in the field of research and experimental development at companies or in the field of consulting companies in the field of research and experimental development meet or
c)			Persons who are active in or for such organisations and who have the necessary expertise.
2.		Not to be considered as external evaluators are persons and organizations that
a)			acts as a competitor in accordance with the information provided by the FFG in the taxable person's business unit; or
b)			in accordance with the information available to the FFG, for the taxable person himself or a market participant with whom the taxable person is in competition, or
c)			have not been contractually obligated to perform in the same way all the obligations of the FFG from the performance of their function as evaluators, such as the FFG itself or the
d)			have been rejected by the taxpayer.
3.		The FFG has to provide the taxpayer with an intended use of an external reviewer with due regard for the anonymity of the reviewer by means of e-mail to the e-mail address sent to her in the expert's request. In it, the FFG
a)			to disclose to the taxpayer,
-				in which area (technology field/science discipline and industry) the person who is considered as an expert (Z 1 lit. a or lit. (c) is active or
-				What area of responsibility the organisation envisaged (Z 2 lit. (b)
b)			inform the taxable person that he has the possibility to designate, within fourteen days without giving reasons, those persons who are not allowed to be included as external reviewers.
4.		The FFG may not provide any person or organization as an external reviewer who
a)			does not meet the requirements of Z 1, or
b)			may not be taken in accordance with Z 2, or
c)			has been rejected by the taxable person in accordance with Z 3 in due time, or
d)			is active in an area or has a remit beyond which the taxable person has not been informed in accordance with Z 3.
5.		The FFG may only disclose information provided to it by the taxable person in the context of the request of the expert opinion to an external expert, that the anonymity of the taxable person against the external Verifier is maintained.
6.		The FFG has to carry out a documentation on compliance with the obligations arising from Z 1 to 5 and to allow the competent authority to inspect the data at any time.

§ 8. The FFG shall, if possible, draw up the opinion within two months, but within four months from the request, unless the processing of an expert's request by the FFG is contrary to circumstances which do not to be represented by her.

§ 9. The advisory opinion shall be forwarded to the tax office by way of the FinanzOnline procedure and shall be made available to the taxable person for the electronic inspection of files (§ 90a BAO). After completion of the opinion by means of e-mail, the FFG shall immediately inform the taxable person, using the e-mail address disclosed in the opinion request, of the possibility of inspection of the opinion by means of Financial Online.

§ 10. The processing of the process relating to the assessment of opinions shall be carried out in accordance with the Anhanges III , Part B, to be made.

Section 3

Data protection and secrecy

§ 11. (1) The FFG is a service provider iSd § 4 Z 5 of the German Data Protection Act 2000-DSG 2000, BGBl, in respect of the preparation of expert opinions. I n ° 165/1999, for the competent tax office.

(2) The FFG has the power to carry out a data application for the tax office, in which the personal data necessary for the preparation of an expert opinion is collected and processed, in order to fulfil its mandate as a reviewer. The competent tax office is the client iSd § 4 Z 4 DSG 2000 for this purpose.

(3) In the course of the evaluation of the assessment, the FFG has to store the personal data relating to the preparation of expert opinions on behalf of the competent tax office.

(4) Even after the expert opinion has been drawn up, FFG shall have the personal data necessary for the preparation of the opinion, including the opinion itself, permanently and against unauthorised access by third parties to the competent tax office. to be protected and to be destroyed in accordance with an extinguishing order issued by the competent financial office.

(5) The competent tax authority shall be responsible for the data relating to the preparation of opinions relating to the inspection and control of the data processing facilities.

§ 12. (1) FFG shall use the collected data and processing results exclusively in the context of the fulfilment of their obligation to produce expert opinions in accordance with § 108c EStG 1988 and § 118a BAO. In this connection, the FFG meet the service obligation obligations in accordance with § 11 paragraph 1 DSG 2000.

(2) The FFG has to draw attention to the admissibility of the processing of data in accordance with § 108c (8) Z 4 or 5 EStG 1988 in the context of the evaluation request.

§ 13. (1) The institutions, employees and contractors of the FFG are obligated to maintain secrecy in the context of § 48a BAO on facts which come to the attention of them in the performance of their work for the opinion of the experts.

(2) FFG is obligated to maintain the confidentiality of the data in connection with the processing of expert opinions and to protect all employees and contractors prior to commending their work in order to maintain this data confidentiality in accordance with § 15 DSG 2000.

Section 4

entry into force

§ 14. This Regulation, with the exception of § 2, is to be applied for the first time to research premiums relating to marketing years which begin after 31 December 2011. Section 2 of this Regulation shall enter into force 1. Jänner 2013 in force. The Regulation of the Federal Minister of Finance on the criteria for the determination of eligible research and development expenses (expenditure) in accordance with § 4 (4) (4a) and (4) (4) (4a), respectively. § 108c Para. 2 Z 1 EStG 1988, BGBl. II No 506/2002, it is the last time that it applies to research premiums relating to the marketing years preceding the 1. January 2012 begin.

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