The number one piece of advice we give to our clients with respect to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program is to treat the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) as a Customer. The reason for this is quite simple: Return on Investment. At the end of the year, the CRA will provide your company a return on your qualifying R&D investments through the SR&ED program. To get your return, you must undertake eligible activities, provide certain deliverables (i.e. T661) and maintain appropriate records. This is not unlike the activities an organization would undertake when completing work for a ‘regular’ client. As in any other case, your return greatly depends on the customer satisfaction. One area where this philosophy particularly applies is maintaining quality supporting documentation for your SR&ED activities. In the T4088-08e (Guide to the T661), the CRA states that contemporaneous documentation is the “best supporting evidence that you […]
SR&ED
It is common knowledge that a company has 18 months following their fiscal year end to submit a claim for SR&ED Investment Tax Credits (ITC). The claim can be submitted concurrently with a T2 or filed later as an amendment. However, the time you will wait before receiving your SR&ED ITC or cash depends on three factors: (a) how the SR&ED claim is submitted, (b) when it is submitted, and (c) whether the claim triggers a review. When a SR&ED claim is submitted as an amendment, the CRA will typically review it within 8 months following submission. If a SR&ED claim is filed concurrently with your annual tax return, the CRA will usually process the claim within 3 months following submission. Provided your SR&ED claim doesn’t trigger a CRA review or an audit, your refund will be on the way shortly after the claim is processed. It is also not […]
A major piece of advice we regularly give to our clients is to get educated on the SR&ED program. More often than not, our clients respond by saying something like, “Isn’t that why we’ve hired you?” Our answer to that question is “Yes, however….”. “Yes” relates to the fact that MCN will handle the preparation and optimization of your SR&ED claim. The “however” relates to the optimization part of our services which among other things include educating client’s personnel on important aspects of the SR&ED program. Client education is an integral part of our philosophy of treating the CRA as a customer (see our earlier post at http://www.mobilecapital.net/sred-advice-treat-the-cra-like-a-customer/). Here are some areas where SR&ED education plays a vital role: 1. Empowering Employees – In our experience, empowering employees can lead to significant increases in SR&ED claims. One technique we employ to make this happen is our SR&ED seminars. These are 45-minute to 1-hour […]