Mission-Oriented R&D Tax Policies.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, fostering innovation is on top of the governmental agendas. One of the traditional ways to promote research and development (R&D) is through tax incentives. Differently from the economic discipline, in legal research there is a gap on what type of innovation R&D tax incentives promote, how definitions of innovation from other fields are transposed into legal texts and how relevant stakeholders interpret these definitions. The uncertainty over the definition of innovation has adverse consequences on innovative investments, the access to incentives for taxpayers, and the societal impact of what is fostered as innovative while less public revenues get collected. Moreover, the increasing involvement of governments in driving innovation is also an opportunity to consider how to incentivize a more responsible way of innovating. This project has two main goals. First of all, it aims at providing the first comparative overview of how the concept of innovation has been shaped by R&D tax policies in different countries. Secondly, the project aims at suggesting how R&D Tax incentives can be redesigned to achieve "responsible innovation". By requiring the fulfilment of other societal missions in addition to striving for technological advancement, "mission-oriented R&D tax policies" can be a key instrument at governments' disposal to foster a more inclusive and sustainable form of innovation while neutralizing its negative spillover effects.

Keywords:TAX LAW

Disciplines:Comparative law, Economic, commercial and financial law, European law, Tax law