Income Tax Act 2007

Schedule 22: Proscribed R&D activities

You could also call this:

"Activities Not Allowed for Tax Help"

You are looking at a list of activities that are not allowed under the Income Tax Act 2007. These activities are called proscribed R&D activities. They are listed in a table with 14 items. You can see that some activities are not allowed because they happen outside of New Zealand. Others are not allowed because they are about buying or selling land, or intellectual property. Some activities are also not allowed because they are about things like market research, quality control, or making small changes to products. You can find more information about what R&D expenditure and R&D material mean by looking at s YA 1. This will help you understand what activities are allowed and what activities are not. It is good to know what these terms mean so you can follow the rules.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6773204.

This page was last updated on 1 January 2026 — View changes

Topics:

Money and consumer rights > TaxesBusiness > Industry rules

Schedule 21B: Expenditure or loss for research and development tax credits, or

"Money back from the government for research and development costs"

Schedule 23: Meaning of permanent establishment, or

"A permanent establishment is a fixed place where a business operates, like an office or factory."

22Proscribed R&D activities Empowered by s YA 1, definitions of R&D expenditure, R&D material

The following table is small in size and has 2 columns. In the table, the first column gives the number of the row. The second column describes the proscribed R&D activity.
1	An activity performed outside of New Zealand.
2	Acquiring or disposing of land, and related activities, except if the land is used exclusively for housing research or development facilities.
3	Acquiring, disposing of, or transferring intangible property, core technology, intellectual property, or know-how, and related activities (for example, drafting sale and purchase agreements for patents).
4	Prospecting for, exploring for, or drilling for, minerals, petroleum, natural gas, or geothermal energy.
5	Research in social sciences, arts, or humanities.
6	Market research, market testing, market development, or sales promotion, including consumer surveys.
7	Quality control or routine testing of materials, products, devices, processes, or services.
8	Making cosmetic or stylistic changes to materials, products, devices, processes, or services.
9	Routine collection of information.
10	Commercial, legal, and administrative aspects of patenting, licensing, or other activities.
11	Activities involved in complying with statutory requirements or standards.
12	Management studies or efficiency surveys.
13	Reproduction of a commercial product or process by a physical examination of an existing system or from plans, blueprints, detailed specifications, or publicly available information.
14	Pre-production activities, such as a demonstration of commercial viability, tooling-up, and trial runs.