Reviewed by Logan Hanson, BSc, CPA. Last verified against CRA guidance on August 4, 2026.
If you’re a Canadian company doing real technical work, SR&ED is probably the largest funding you’re eligible for, and the least understood. This guide covers what SR&ED claim support actually is in 2026: who qualifies, what kinds of help exist, what it costs, how the process works, and what changed this year. It’s the plain-English version I wish more founders had before they filed.
SR&ED is a federal tax incentive that refunds or credits part of the cost of eligible research and development. A project qualifies when it shows three things together: technological uncertainty, systematic investigation, and technological advancement. Success isn’t required, so failed and abandoned work can qualify on the same terms.
Many Canadian companies doing genuine technical problem-solving qualify for something, as long as the work meets all three tests, and you don’t need a lab or a research department. The enhanced refundable credit goes primarily to Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs); non-CCPC corporations generally earn a smaller non-refundable credit. If you want the deeper eligibility picture, our post on why tech firms struggle with SR&ED claims is a good next read.
There are three main routes: do it yourself, use your regular accountant, or use a specialist SR&ED service. Each fits a different situation.
Filing yourself is possible and cheapest in cash terms. It works best for small, simple claims where you’re confident about eligibility. The risk is time, plus leaving eligible work unclaimed or filing something that’s hard to defend.
Some accountants handle SR&ED, which is convenient if they already do your books. The question to ask is how much SR&ED they do and whether they can write the technical narrative, because that’s where a lot of claims are won or lost, not just the tax filing.
A specialist does SR&ED all day: finding eligible work across your year, writing the technical narrative in the CRA’s terms, costing it correctly, and defending it if reviewed. It’s usually the best fit for claims with multiple projects, complex costing, or a team new to filing. Our guide to SR&ED consultant facts for first-time claimants goes deeper on what to expect.
Specialist support is usually priced as either a percentage of your refund or a flat fee, and the two behave very differently over time.
Percentage fee: nothing up front, but the cost rises every year your refund grows, so the lifetime cost can be large.
Flat fee: a known cost that doesn’t balloon as your claim grows, so more of the credit stays with you. For a growing company, this is usually the cheaper path over several years.
We break down the math in our post on how much leaving a contingency-fee firm saves.
The process is five steps: identify the eligible work, gather the evidence, cost it, file it, then respond if the CRA reviews it.
Once filed, the CRA targets 60 days to process refundable claims accepted as filed, and 180 days for refundable claims selected for review, both measured from a complete claim. Those are service standards, not guarantees.
The headline change is that the enhanced refundable expenditure limit rose from $3 million to $6 million, roughly doubling the maximum refundable credit for a qualifying CCPC to up to $2.1 million a year. That came through Bill C-15, which received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026, effective for taxation years beginning on or after December 16, 2024. The enhanced rate still phases out with taxable capital and is shared among associated corporations, and the three eligibility tests are unchanged.
Consider a CCPC with $500,000 in eligible salaries and a $100,000 arm’s-length Canadian contractor (claimable at 80%, so $80,000). At the 35% enhanced federal rate, that $580,000 qualifying base produces roughly $203,000 in federal credit before the prescribed-proxy overhead amount and provincial credits.
For a qualifying CCPC that credit is refundable, paid as cash even in a loss year. With provincial credits added, the combined return is higher than the federal credit alone, though not by simple addition, and how much higher depends on your province. The 35% enhanced rate applies to the first $6 million of qualifying expenditures and phases out with taxable capital. For the program-wide numbers, see our State of SR&ED overview.
Choose SR&ED support by weighing technical expertise, whole-year coverage, pricing, audit defense, and the filing deadline. Use this to decide what fits your situation.
SRED.ca charges a flat fee, billed monthly, never a percentage or contingency fee, which usually works out to roughly half the lifetime cost of a percentage-based firm. As far as we know, we’re the only SR&ED provider that publishes its pricing on its website, so you can see it before you talk to us. We track your eligible work year-round, we’re CPA-owned, audit defense is included, and if the CRA approves less than 75% of the filed claim we waive our fees, as set out in our 75% guarantee. If there’s no eligible work in your year, you don’t pay.
SR&ED claim support in 2026 comes down to matching the help to your claim: simple and small can be DIY, while larger or more complex claims usually justify specialist support. Whatever route you choose, file within the window and build the claim to defend. If you want to talk through what fits, grab a free consultation. The CRA’s SR&ED program page is the official source for the rules.
Related reading: first-time SR&ED claim help in Canada, how SR&ED tax services support startup R&D credits, and what could go wrong if founders file on their own.
It’s help preparing and filing an SR&ED claim: identifying eligible work, writing the technical narrative, costing the claim, filing it, and defending it if reviewed. Support ranges from doing it yourself to using a specialist service, depending on your claim’s size and complexity.
You can file it yourself, use an accountant who handles SR&ED, or use a specialist SR&ED service. The key is whether they can write the technical narrative and find eligible work across your year, not just complete the tax form.
The CRA targets 60 days for refundable claims accepted as filed and 180 days for refundable claims selected for review, both measured from a complete claim. These are service standards, not guarantees, and the CRA may request additional information, which moves a claim to the review track.
Specialist support is usually a percentage of your refund or a flat fee. A percentage grows with your refund every year, while a flat fee stays known and often costs less over time as your claim grows. Doing it yourself has no fee but costs time and carries more risk.
Form T661 is the CRA’s SR&ED claim form. You file it with your corporate income tax return to claim the credit, and it’s where the technical descriptions and eligible expenditures are reported. It must be filed within 18 months of your fiscal year-end.
The enhanced refundable expenditure limit rose from $3 million to $6 million through Bill C-15, roughly doubling the maximum refundable credit for a qualifying CCPC to up to $2.1 million a year. It received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026, effective for taxation years beginning on or after December 16, 2024. The eligibility tests are unchanged.
This article is general information, not tax advice. Tax figures depend on your corporation type, province, and taxation year.
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