Common questions

What is a patent box tax regime?

What is a patent box tax regime?

A patent box is a special very low corporate tax regime used by several countries to incentivise research and development by taxing patent revenues differently from other commercial revenues. It is also known as intellectual property box regime, innovation box or IP box.

How do patent boxes work?

A patent box—also referred to as intellectual property (IP) regime—taxes business income earned from IP at a rate below the statutory corporate income tax rate, aiming to encourage local research and development. Many patent boxes around the world have undergone substantial reforms due to profit shifting concerns.

Which countries have patent box?

What makes a patent eligible

  • the UK Intellectual Property Office.
  • the European Patent Office.
  • these countries in the European Economic Area: Austria. Bulgaria. Czech Republic. Denmark. Estonia. Finland. Germany. Hungary. Poland. Portugal. Romania. Slovakia. Sweden.

How are patent boxes calculated?

To calculate the Patent Box deduction, we use the formula given in the legislation; Relevant IP profits (RP) are multiplied by the main rate of Corporation Tax (MR) minus the special rate of Corporation Tax (IPR, ultimately 10%) divided by the main rate of Corporation Tax i.e.

Why is it called Patent Box?

The ‘patent box’ tax incentive, named after the ‘patent’ box that you tick in your tax return, allows companies to pay a lower tax rate on income generated through the commercialisation of patented technology.

How are patents treated for tax purposes?

If you sold a patent in 2017, it is treated for tax purposes like the sale of any other capital asset, with capital gains or losses taken into consideration. That provision will change for patents sold in 2018, with such sales treated and taxed as income for businesses and individuals rather than sales of assets.

Why is it called patent box?

When did patent box start?

April 2013
The UK Patent Box scheme was introduced in April 2013 and allows UK companies to elect to pay a reduced rate of corporation tax on profits derived from the exploitation of patents and certain other types of intellectual property such as supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) for pharmaceutical products.

What is Nexus fraction?

The nexus fraction The 30% uplift in the numerator of the fraction allows for IP acquisition costs and R&D subcontracted to connected companies to qualify up to a maximum of 30% of the sum of the R&D expenditure incurred by the company itself and the R&D subcontracted to unconnected parties.

What is a routine return?

The routine return represents the profit a business might have made if it did not have access to unique IP and other intangible assets. A cost plus methodology is a recognised way to determine an arm’s length return that might be expected from a trader without access to unique IP.

Do patent boxes work?

The Federal Government announced in its 2021-2022 budget on Tuesday that Australia will introduce a patent box tax incentive, effective from 1 July 2022. As a result, the government has decided that now is the time to focus on incentives that target the last stage of the innovation lifecycle – commercialisation.

How are the sale of patents taxed?

Non-capital assets are usually intangible properties, such as patents. Typically, the sale or trade of a capital asset is taxed at the capital gain or loss tax rate. Conversely, the sale or trade of a non-capital asset is taxed at the ordinary gain or loss tax rate.

How does a patent box tax regime work?

In a Patent Box Tax Regime, a lower rate of tax is applicable for the income generated from licensing or transfer of intellectual property rights like trademarks, copyrights, patent, know-how etc. The concept of patent boxes, to serve as a tax incentive to companies to exploit their patented IPs, is very common.

What are the rules for patent box in Hungary?

”Other” refers to IP assets that are non-obvious, useful, and novel. These can only be applied to small and medium size businesses. 2. Hungary’s patent box regime applies a zero percent rate in the case of capital gains of reported qualifying IP and 4.5 percent in case of benefits related to royalty income.

Are there any patent box regimes in Spain?

The Spanish regions “Basque Country” and “Navarra” have separate IP regimes. 6. Switzerland recently introduced a patent box regime going into effect in 2020 at the cantonal level, which will cover all of Switzerland and not only the Swiss canton of Nidwalden.

When was the Patent Box introduced in France?

The regime in France was introduced in 2000. France has the highest rate of 15% under the regime, but that is still considerably lower than their statutory corporate rate of 33%. The patent box scheme in Belgium was introduced in January 2007, and is known as a patent income deduction (PID).

Author Image
Ruth Doyle