If you want a R&D tax credit for the 2019/2020 or 2020/2021 tax years, you now have until 31 August 2021 to apply. Please note: if your application is approved, Year 1 payments won’t be processed until new legislation has passed to enable the extended deadline. This is likely to be in early 2022.
Eligibility criteria applies. Find out more on Inland Revenue’s website.
Research and development — Inland Revenue
R&D tax incentive: What’s eligible and how to claim
Money your business spends on research and development (R&D) from the 2019/20 income year may be eligible for a 15 per cent tax credit. Find out if your R&D activities qualify.
What is the R&D tax incentive?
What: The R&D tax incentive provides a tax credit at a rate of 15 per cent of eligible R&D spend up to $120 million. To be eligible, you must spend at least $50,000 per year on eligible R&D. Spend under $50,000 per year may still be eligible if you use an approved research provider to do R&D on your behalf.
Approved research provider list — Inland Revenue
When: The R&D tax incentive is available from your business’s 2019/20 income year. The R&D tax incentive is already in effect for most taxpayers.
Who: Businesses investing in eligible R&D activity.
Why: To grow New Zealand’s investment in R&D.
How: Register on myIR.
How to register for the R&D tax incentive — Inland Revenue
Claiming research and development tax credits — Inland Revenue
What to do next
Check your eligibility
If you’re currently doing R&D, find out if your present activities meet the tax incentive criteria. If you’re considering how you might do future R&D, understanding the eligibility criteria might help you make the right decisions.
Eligible R&D activities must:
- be performed to acquire new knowledge, or create a new or improved process, service or good,
- seek to resolve a scientific or technological uncertainty, and
- use a systematic approach.
For your R&D to be eligible you must seek to resolve a scientific or technological uncertainty. In other words, it’s not enough to be applying existing knowledge in a new situation. You must be trying to solve a hard problem or do something that professionals in that field don’t know how to do without going through an investigative process to try to find an answer.
Eligible R&D activities must be done in New Zealand, but up to 10 per cent of total eligible spend can relate to R&D done overseas.
Inland Revenue has a tool to help you better understand if you are eligible for the R&D tax incentive.
R&D tax incentive eligibility tool — Inland Revenue
SOURCE: BUSINESS.GOVT.NZ
