FinTech Australia renews call for additional tax benefits for startup collaboration following release of major innovation review

Australias fintech community today renewed its call for additional tax benefits for companies and research institutions that collaborate with startups to create growth and jobs, in the wake of the release of a major review into Australias innovation eco-system.Innovation and Science Australia today released its 2016 Performance Review of theAustralian innovation, science and research system.FinTech Australia CEO Danielle Szetho said the fintech community agreed with the reports finding that there is an urgent need to improve commercialisation outcomes.Ultimately this will need to be driven through collaboration between the research andbusiness community and startup companies, Ms Szetho said."This position reflects the fact that startup companies are key drivers of new jobs but usually need to collaborate across industry and academia to reach their full potential.Late last year, FinTech Australia and StartupAus advocated strongly in favour of thecreation of a collaboration premium as part of the Australian Governments research &development tax incentive.We continue to argue today that this will be an important incentive to help establish more high-growth startups that more efficiently deliver commercialisation.Large industry players are often too slow moving or focused on core challenges to test and take advantage of cutting edge research quickly enough."Our advocacy here is also in line with our own research in the FinTech Australia census last year, which found that collaboration and partnership building remained a key external challenge for the growth of the fintech industry in Australia.- END -About FinTech AustraliaFinTech Australia is a national association for the Australian FinTech Startup community. Our vision is to make Australia the leading market for FinTech Innovation and Investment by working with both sides of Government, Industry and the Australian FinTech community to create a supportive environment and partner ecosystem in Australia and abroad.Media ContactsDanielle SzethoChief Executive OfficerFinTech AustraliaPh. 0414075423Email: danielle@fintechaustralia.org.auMark SkelseyHead of PR and CommunicationsFinTech AustraliaPh. 0403197523Email: mark@fintechaustralia.org.au