Brussels, 28/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - The International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD) has carried out a comparative study commissioned by the European Commission on the tax treatment of research and development expenditure (RDT) in the 25 Member States of the EU, in the United States and in Japan. This study shows that tax laws in many Member States have rules and specific tax breaks to promote RDT. These tax incentives, which are less common in the new Member States, bear witness to a great difference in approach within the EU. For example, in nine Member States (Germany, Austria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Malta, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia) and in the US, RDT expenditure is tax deductible if it is considered as charges (revenue expenditure) or can be written off once it has been taken into account, like capital expenditure. The data gathered will feed into discussions between the Commission and the Member States on how research and development expenditure can be promoted. The study is available on the Internet site of the Commission's Directorate General 'Taxation and the Customs Union”.