There is no denying that Canada has one of the best programs as far as funding for companies that perform R&D goes. And while it is promoted frequently for Canadian Controlled Private Corporations, there are many other companies that can take advantage of this program.

Take, for instance, an American-owned company that has a branch in Canada. This Canadian branch manufactures custom products for its customers, and regularly has to work through technological obstacles to create the final product that was required.

Because this American-owned company has a branch that operates in Canada, and pays taxes to the Canadian government, this foreign-owned company would be eligible for the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program. Unlike privately-owned businesses, however, this foreign-owned company would be eligible to receive 20% of their claim in the form of tax credits. These tax credits can be applied retrospectively ten years, or can be applied forward three years.

Nortel is in the news again!

A giant in the IT Industry and Canada’s one time largest employer have been force to sell off it’s assets due to bankruptcy. This time it is their wireless network infrastructure to Nokia Siemens Networks. IT is an industry ripe with innovation and Canada needs innovation in order to compete in the world marketplace. How can Canadian Industry compete with cheaper overseas labour and the economic down turn? Many companies turn to government programs like the SR&ED (Scientific Research and Experimental Development) tax credit program to help fund their innovation.

Many SME’s in Ontario capitalize on the 41.5% return on labour and material costs incurred from R&D. It is important to talk to an expert in SR&ED to gain the most from a your claim. An SR&ED consultant can assess if you actually have SR&ED eligible projects, what you can expect to get in return and prepare you for future SR&ED claims. Claiming SR&ED on a yearly basis can reap financial rewards for your company’s innovation and keep you manufacturing in Canada.

Without a consultant you could end up claiming less than you otherwise would have. The CRA, who administers the program, has said that a majority of the claims they see claim far less than what they should. You may not be able to identify all the projects that qualify, where a consultant can be that second pair of eyes that can catch any additional projects. A consultant should look at all the areas in your business and not the areas that are most prevalent with SR&ED activities. Areas that have SR&ED some of the time may incur the most labour and material expense because SR&ED does not happen there regularly. Most importantly a consultant works for you and it is in their best interest that you have a viable SR&ED claim – that way you will continue to claim for years to come.

Have you ever wondered how much you would be eligible to claim for the SR&ED program? You may think that you wouldn’t get enough back to justify making the claim in the first place – after all, claiming on your own could take a lot of time just to put the claim together. But you may be surprised by how much you would be eligible for claiming.

We’ve put together a handy SR&ED calculator that will calculate how much you could get back with this program. After filling out a few questions in the SRED calculator, the range that your claim would most likely fall in is e-mailed immediately to you.

Our SR&ED calculator takes into account how many employees work for you, the hours that were spent on SR&ED and the amount that you spent on R&D materials to help calculate your range.

If you’ve ever wondered how much you could qualify for claiming, now is the best time to find out – just head on over to our SR&ED calculator!