Find out what R&D activities are excluded

What are excluded activities?

Some activities are excluded from the R&D tax credit, for the following reasons:

• They are outside the intended scope of the R&D tax credit (for example market research).
• To distinguish between innovative and routine work.
• To distinguish between R&D and post-R&D activities.

Activities on the excluded list cannot be SIE activities, but may be support activities.

Excluded activities are:

• prospecting for, exploring for or drilling for minerals, petroleum, natural gas or geothermal energy
• research in social sciences, arts or humanities
• market research, market testing, market development, or sales promotion including consumer surveys
• quality control or routine testing of materials, products, devices, processes or services
• making cosmetic or stylistic changes to materials, products, devices, processes or services
• routine collection of information
• commercial, legal and administrative aspects of patenting, licensing or other activities
• activities involved in complying with statutory requirements or standards
• management studies or efficiency surveys
• the 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
• pre-production activities such as a demonstration of commercial viability, tooling-up and trial runs.

Excluded activities as support activities

Excluded activities are only excluded from being SIE activities. If the SIE activity is in another field, activities on the excluded list may still be eligible as support activities.

Next steps

• Find out what expenditure is eligible and what is excluded

Date published: 30 Sep 2008

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