Reviewed by Logan Hanson, BSc, CPA. Last verified against CRA guidance on July 29, 2026.
It depends on the size of your refund and the percentage you pay, but for an established filer the savings are often tens of thousands of dollars a year. One SaaS company we worked with saved about $65,000 in its first year on a flat fee, and kept saving every year after, regardless of how large the claim grew.
The reason is simple. A percentage fee scales with your refund. The work of preparing the claim does not. So the bigger your R&D and the larger your refund, the more a percentage model costs you for the same amount of work.
A contingency fee is a percentage of your SR&ED refund paid to the firm that prepares the claim, often in the range of 15% or more. It has genuine advantages: there is no upfront cost, and the firm only gets paid when a refund arrives, which can suit a first-time filer or a company watching cash flow closely. Every model has a place, and contingency firms do real work for their clients.
The trade-off shows up over time. As your claims grow year over year, the percentage keeps taking a larger absolute cut for work that has not grown at the same rate.
No. This is the most common worry, and it is unfounded. Your refund is determined by your eligible work and how well it is documented, not by how your advisor is paid. Moving from a percentage to a flat fee changes the fee, not the size of the claim. If anything, a technical-first rebuild often makes the claim stronger, not smaller.
A 20-person SaaS company had been filing SR&ED for several years through a contingency-fee firm, giving up a percentage of every refund that came to about $95,000 a year, and had started to wonder whether that was really the only option. The underlying technical work was solid. The issue was that the firm’s incentive was to file quickly and take a cut, not necessarily to build the most complete, defensible claim.
We reviewed the claim history, rebuilt the technical documentation to the standard we use for every client, and moved the company onto a flat fee of $30,000. That cut their fees by roughly two thirds, saving about $65,000 in the first year alone. They put the savings toward hiring a new engineer. This is one of eleven engagements in our full SR&ED case studies document.
Say your SR&ED refund supports a contingency fee of about $95,000 in a year. On a flat fee of $30,000 for the same claim, the difference of roughly $65,000 stays with you. Repeat that every year, and the gap compounds, which is why a flat fee often works out to roughly half the lifetime cost of a percentage-based arrangement.
Flat-fee pros: predictable cost, does not scale with your refund, and you keep the full upside when your claim grows.
Flat-fee trade-offs: there can be a cost even in a light year, though at SRED.ca, if there is no eligible work in your year, you don’t pay.
Contingency pros: no upfront cost and payment only when a refund arrives, which can help first-time filers.
Contingency cons: the fee rises with every refund, so a growing claim quietly costs you more each year for the same work.
Run through this before you renew with a percentage-based firm.
We charge a flat fee billed monthly, published openly on our website and roughly half the lifetime cost of percentage-based firms. We are the only SR&ED provider we are aware of that publishes its pricing, so you can compare before you ever talk to us. When your claim grows, the savings grow with it, because our fee does not.
The work is backed by a 75% approval guarantee: if the CRA approves less than 75% of the filed claim, we waive our fees. If there is no eligible work in your year, you don’t pay. For help comparing advisors, see our guides on SR&ED consultant costs in Canada and how to choose an SR&ED consultant.
Leaving a contingency fee for a flat fee does not touch your refund, but it can put tens of thousands of dollars a year back on your bottom line, money you can spend on the R&D itself. A free consultation and a quick look at your past fees usually tells you within an hour what a switch is worth. For the bigger picture, see our State of SR&ED hub.
It depends on your refund size and the percentage you pay, but the savings are often tens of thousands of dollars a year. One SaaS company saved about $65,000 in its first year after moving to a flat fee.
It is a percentage of your refund paid to the firm that prepares the claim. The fee rises as your refund grows, even though the work of preparing the claim does not scale the same way.
For most established filers, yes. A flat fee is predictable and does not scale with your refund, so a larger claim keeps more money with you instead of handing over a percentage.
No. Your refund depends on your eligible work and how well it is documented, not on how your advisor is paid. Moving to a flat fee changes the fee, not the size of the claim.
Not necessarily worse, but the incentive is to file quickly and take a cut, which is not always the same as building the most complete and defensible claim possible. Every firm deserves to be judged on its work.
No. We charge a flat fee billed monthly, published openly on our website, with a 75% approval guarantee and audit defence included. If there is no eligible work in your year, you don’t pay.
This article is general information, not tax advice. Tax figures depend on your corporation type, province, and taxation year.
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