Scientific Research & Experimental Development Tax Incentive

SR&ED Program

Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) is a tax incentive program in Canada. This program is administered by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and is designed to encourage Canadian businesses of all sizes and in all sectors to conduct Research and Development (R&D) in Canada. Crowe MacKay’s SR&ED team is made up of Technical Specialists, Financial Specialists, and Tax Specialists, who have significant experience in the Engineering, Life Sciences, and Information Technology sectors.

Our Services:

Our SR&ED Team begins with us putting your company’s success a priority of ours. We take the time to learn about your business, key drivers, and key individuals and how things work best for you. We then use this knowledge to establish a foundation and grow from there. In order for us to prepare a strong SR&ED Claim, we must understand how your business works and develop a SR&ED claim driven by the functions and actions of your business. From this knowledge we gain a better understanding of what SR&ED projects exist and what should be claimed. We also identify any weaknesses in your documentation per our information gathering process that can be strengthened.

SR&ED Claim Process

Identifying qualifying activities and expenditures

We can assist you with improving project identification methodologies – our team will work with you to train your team on implementing project identification strategies and documentation requirements.

Preparing claims – our team can assist you with all of your SR&ED considerations

Some examples of this support include:

Assistance with gathering required information to support the SR&ED claim and develop the framework for the projects being claimed
Development of accurate project descriptions
Review of your own taxpayer prepared SR&ED claim and provide feedback
Assistance with filing your SR&ED claim and amend previous tax filings if required

CRA compliance

Assist with gathering the required information to support the SR&ED claim and develop the framework for the projects being claimed
Help negotiate and resolve disputes with CRA
CRA uses their “Five Questions” to determine the SR&ED eligibility. The Five Questions are:

Was there a scientific or technological uncertainty?
Identify the effort involve formulating hypotheses specifically aimed at reducing or eliminating that uncertainty?
Was the overall approach adopted consistent with a systematic investigation or search, including formulating and testing the hypotheses by means of experiment or analysis?
Was the overall approach undertaken for the purpose of achieving a scientific or technological advancement?
Was a record of the hypotheses tested and the results kept as the work progressed?

SR&ED Benefits

Once SR&ED work has been determined by our specialists, you may be eligible to receive benefits in the form of a refundable Investment Tax Credit (ITC), a reduction of taxes payable, or both. The federal and provincial tax credits you receive may be as high as 64% of salary-based eligible expenditures.