News & Updates

January 2015

Although the criteria for SR&ED have not changed, and the format required of the SR&ED technical description remain the same, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) now refers to five questions when determining eligibility for SR&ED:

Was there a scientific or a technological uncertainty that could not be removed by standard practice?
Did the effort involve formulating hypotheses specifically aimed at reducing or eliminating that uncertainty?
Was the adopted procedure consistent with the total discipline of the scientific method, including formulating, testing, and modifying the hypotheses?
Did the process result in a scientific or a technological advancement?
Was a record of the hypotheses tested and the results kept as the work progressed?

The CRA determines that there is SR&ED if the answer to all of the above questions is yes.

To read about SR&ED eligibility and these questions in more detail, the complete document is available here

March 2013

Canada’s 2013 Economic Action Plan includes a focus on increasing the transparency of the Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) Program. In particular, there is a growing concern of non-compliance from SR&ED claimants. The CRA has been allotted $15 million over the next two years to devote more resources to reviewing SR&ED claims.

Research and Innovation highlights in Budget 2013

The budget also proposes to introduce a penalty of $1,000 for SR&ED claims where prescribed information is missing, incomplete, or inaccurate.

Click here for more information

July 2011

The CRA has recently posted a revised version of The SR&ED Technical Review: A Guide for Claimants.

Click here to view a summary of the revisions included, or view the full guide

An updated SR&ED Claim Review Manual has also been released to the public.

Click here for more information

June 2011

Processing time for SR&ED claims are based on the CRA’s SR&ED Service Standards.

Click here for recent success rates and average processing times.