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CRA: Looking to apply for SR&ED investment tax credits? The CRA is here to help!

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has launched re-designed Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Tax Incentive Program web pages to make it easy for you to find the information you need to claim SR&ED investment tax credits.

We have also updated our interactive Self-Assessment and Learning Tool (SALT), so you can determine whether your research and development (R&D) work could qualify for investment tax credits and your potential claim amount.

What is the SR&ED Tax Incentive program?

The SR&ED Tax Incentive Program is the largest Government of Canada program supporting R&D in Canada, providing more than $3 billion in tax incentives to over 16,000 businesses annually. Depending on the size and type of business, SR&ED incentives can be used:

• As a deduction against income
• As an investment tax credit (ITC) that can be non-refundable or refundable

 Whatever eligible SR&ED work you are doing, you can use your pool of deductible SR&ED expenditures to reduce your net income for tax purposes in the current year or deduct them in a future year.

Your ITCs will be at least 15% and can be as much as 35% of your qualified SR&ED expenditures. You can use the ITCs to reduce your income tax payable for the year. If you have excess ITCs in the current year, you may also get a refund. If you have any unused ITCs, you can carry them back three years or forward 20 years and apply them against tax payable for other years.

Making it easier to claim SR&ED Investment Tax Credits

If you’re interested in learning more about how your business can benefit from SR&ED investment tax credits, visit our re-designed web pages:

• Use our Self-Assessment and Learning Tool (SALT) to see whether your business can claim investment tax credits and calculate how much you could get.
•  Find out how to apply for SR&ED investment tax credits, and what you can expect after you submit your claim.

Helping you self-assess the eligibility of your R&D work

The SALT helps you to understand if your project may include SR&ED work, and you can use it to calculate your potential claim amount. You can access the SALT any time and it only takes around 30 minutes to complete. 

• You only need to answer a few questions about your project to determine if it might be eligible for SR&ED investment tax credits.
• The SALT will help you to understand the kinds of information you need to complete a claim and the kinds of records you may need to support your claim.
• The SALT will allow you to edit your responses. If you make a mistake, you can easily correct it and request a new calculation.
• Once you have completed your self-assessment, you can request a free  pre-claim consultation with a SR&ED specialist by uploading your SALT summary in My Business Account. A SR&ED specialist will contact you within three to seven business days to walk through your responses with you and answer your questions. 

To learn more, visit the SR&ED tax incentive program web pages.

Contact us if you have any questions. We’re here to help!