SR&ED for Multi-Year R&D Projects: Claiming Across Fiscal Years
Many genuinely uncertain R&D efforts span multiple fiscal years — a materials formulation that takes eighteen months of trials, a platform rebuild that unfolds across three release cycles. Claiming this kind of work correctly requires understanding that each fiscal year gets its own claim, tied to what was actually uncertain during that specific period. Each […]
How the CRA Selects SR&ED Claims for Review
Not every SR&ED claim is reviewed in detail, and being selected for review isn’t itself a sign something is wrong — but understanding how selection works helps businesses prepare rather than panic if it happens. What Triggers a Closer Look ● A claim amount that’s grown sharply from the prior year without a clear explanation […]
Why SR&ED Claims Get Rejected: Top Reasons and How to Avoid Them
A rejected or reduced SR&ED claim is rarely a surprise to anyone who understands what went into it — the warning signs are usually visible well before filing. Understanding the most common failure points makes it much easier to catch them early. Reason 1: The Narrative Describes the Product, Not the Uncertainty A claim that […]
Building a Year-Round SR&ED Documentation System (Not a Year-End Scramble)
Most companies treat SR&ED documentation as a fiscal year-end problem: a mad scramble to reconstruct what happened eight or ten months ago. Reconstructed records are weaker evidence than contemporaneous ones — and they’re far more work to produce. A lightweight system built into the regular workflow removes almost all of that year-end effort. The Core […]
In-House vs. Outsourced SR&ED Claim Preparation: Weighing the Trade-offs
As a company’s SR&ED claims grow more complex — more projects, more staff, larger dollar amounts — the question of who prepares the claim becomes a real operational decision, not just a formality. There’s no universally correct answer, but the trade-offs are consistent enough to reason through clearly. The Case for In-House Preparation ● Technical […]
SR&ED for Pre-Revenue Startups: Claiming Before You Have Customers
Founders building a pre-revenue product often assume SR&ED is something to think about once the company is generating income and has an accountant deep in the weeds of corporate tax. In practice, SR&ED has no revenue requirement at all — and pre-revenue companies are frequently the ones with the most claimable work, because nearly everything […]
Could Your R&D Project Qualify for SR&ED? A Practical Self-Assessment
By now, you’ve seen what SR&ED eligibility looks like across industries — from AI and software to manufacturing, construction, and life sciences. This self-assessment pulls the eligibility test into one practical scorecard you can run against your own projects in a few minutes. Score Each Statement (0 = No, 1 = Somewhat, 2 = Yes) […]
SR&ED Case Study: Carbon Capture Technology
Background A cleantech company was adapting a carbon capture sorbent technology for a specific industrial facility, but the facility’s flue gas contained impurities not present in the conditions the sorbent was originally developed and validated for. The Challenge It was unclear whether the sorbent’s capture efficiency could be maintained in the presence of these impurities, […]
SR&ED Case Study: Battery Technology & Energy Storage
Background An energy storage company was developing a battery system for use in extreme cold-climate conditions, but existing cell chemistries showed significantly accelerated capacity degradation when repeatedly cycled at low temperatures. The Challenge It was unclear whether any combination of cell chemistry modification and thermal management could achieve acceptable cycle life under the target operating […]
SR&ED Case Study: Precision Agriculture & AI
Background An AgTech company wanted to develop a crop stress detection system using drone-captured multispectral imagery, but existing published detection models were trained on different crop varieties and growing conditions than those used by the company’s target customers. The Challenge It was unclear whether existing detection models could be adapted to the target crop and […]