Stratos: Expert SR&ED Consultants
At Stratos, we assist our clients in leveraging the SR&ED government incentive program to reward our clients with annual funding which enables them to evolve their business. At Stratos, you’ll benefit from filing your SR&ED claim with us by:
- Receiving funding faster by filing on-time and correctly
- Wholly contingency fee based – we only get paid once you get paid.
- Maximized claim benefits – our unique SR&ED solution optimizes your claim amount
Stratos Consultants have filed over 2,500 projects and proven our ability to deliver on complex claims by securing over $1MM for our largest clients. At Stratos, our innovative process results in higher success rates for our clients which consistently exceed industry benchmarks. Our team brings over 35 years of SR&ED filing experience from the inception of the government program and gives your business the tools to evolve strategically. We take a hands-on approach to SR&ED which allows your employees to focus on what they do best. Stratos SR&ED experts are a multi-disciplinary team that specialize in the unique requirements of the SR&ED program to ensure your claim is maximized. We assist in claiming your projects from ideation to finished product, optimizing every detail along the way. Our industry-specialized team has a strong grasp of the challenges your business faces and work performed, making the SR&ED process seamless. At Stratos, we understand the challenges of innovation, our job is to make it easier.
SR&ED Overview
On an annual basis, the Government of Canada invests $3bn into the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax incentive program. On average, there are 20,000 – 25,000 businesses that claim for SR&ED each year.
The SR&ED program rewards Canadian businesses that invest in research, development and innovation. Although, many Canadian businesses are unaware that they’re eligible for this funding due to the lack of awareness on the program.
SR&ED provides claimants with cash refunds and tax incentives up to nearly 70% of your costs, namely:
- Payroll
- Subcontractors
- Material costs, if applicable, and
- Overhead
These refunds are calculated on a project basis, pro-rata to the extent of the eligible development or research work conducted. For example, an eligible project that accounts for 50% of employee time would result in 50% of their relevant payroll, including overhead and any applicable material costs to be allocated to a SR&ED expenditure pool for refund to your company.
SR&ED Eligibility
The SR&ED Program rewards Canadian businesses of all sizes and in all sectors to conduct R&D in Canada. Many businesses do not claim for SR&ED because they’re unsure that qualify. However, SR&ED has no bounds – if you have gained new knowledge through development, you can claim for SR&ED.
The CRA and Finance Canada’s definition and eligibility requirements of SR&ED are complex and meant to be a one-size-fits all to every applicable business in Canada. Our job is to perform a SR&ED discovery to quickly determine if your business is eligible to apply for the program on an annual basis. We specialize in optimizing your operations to meet the SR&ED requirements.
Eligible Work Categories
- Basic Research
- Applied Research
- Experimental Development
Corresponding Support Work
- Engineering
- Design
- Operations Research
- Mathematical Analysis
- Computer Programming
- Data Collection
- Testing
- Psychological Research
Both Canadian Controlled Private Corporations (CCPC) and Non-CCPC entities may claim for SR&ED on an annual basis but would receive different benefits.
SR&ED Requirements
The SR&ED program is facilitated by CRA on an honour base system whereby SR&ED submissions are evaluated for eligibility and may be accepted as filed, without review. However, the CRA requires that documentation be maintained to support the project work performed from a technical and financial perspective.
Technical information
Any documentation to support the technical component of your claim should be maintained until the claim has been reviewed. At Stratos, we alleviate this effort and work with your staff to compile your SR&ED documentation for you. Documents that were generated when the work was being carried out are the most common, but supporting evidence can also include items such as photographs, videos, scrap, or other artefacts that relate to the work.
The best supporting evidence is documentation that is dated and specific to the work performed. However, CRA will accept various forms of evidence.
Financial information
It’s important to retain organized records that support the expenditures claimed. At Stratos, we obtain this data in calculating your refund at the forefront of our engagement and ensure that the SR&ED documentation includes adequate financial records to meet CRA’s requirements.
We prevent the ‘scramble to find evidence’ at the end of year by coaching your team and making best practice recommendations to improve your time, documentation, and expenditure tracking easily.
Tax Savings
Many business owners fall behind on reconciling their tax accounts, or don’t do them at all! We ensure that all adjustments and tax credits available to you are leveraged to minimize your tax bill.
Benefits of Hiring Stratos as your SR&ED Consultant
Ability to Identify Eligible Work
Most businesses omit filing for SR&ED due to their lack of awareness or knowledge on the program. We know what work is eligible and can quickly identify and quantify this into a claim for your business.
Small Business Focus
Small businesses comprise of 75% of SR&ED claims – At Stratos, we focus primarily on small businesses, many of which do not possess the in-house SR&ED expertise.
SR&ED Program Knowledge
We’re familiar with the regulatory, compliance and administrative changes occurring within in the program and could guide our clients in the best direction for maximizing their claim.
Experienced in SR&ED
We do this for over 100 clients, annually – we’re familiar and have developed a strong working relationship with the CRA. In the event of an audit, we support our clients through the process and are fully engaged until you receive your refund.
We Know What We’re Doing
We possess intellectual property to reduce the chance of audit – we have an in-house internally developed methodology for structuring your claim to mitigate audit risk. We assure you the highest possibility of success.
Best Practice Improvements
We will train your staff and help your organization adopt a SR&ED framework that eases the claim process on an annual basis.
Multidisciplinary and Industry-Specialized
The SR&ED field combines knowledge of the law, accounting and technology. Hence Stratos SR&ED consultants would greatly benefit your organization since it provides you with access to a multidisciplinary, industry-specialized team that includes consultants whom possess technical-scientific backgrounds, accounting backgrounds, and legal backgrounds.
It’s Risk Free
Our SR&ED services are entirely contingency fee based. If you don’t receive your refund, we don’t get paid.
- Ability to Identify Eligible Work: Most businesses omit filing for SR&ED due to their lack of awareness or knowledge on the program. We know what work is eligible and can quickly identify and quantify this into a claim for your business.
- Small Business Focus: Small businesses comprise of 75% of SR&ED claims – At Stratos, we focus primarily on small businesses, many of which do not possess the in-house SR&ED expertise
- SR&ED Program Knowledge: We’re familiar with the regulatory, compliance and administrative changes occurring within in the program and could guide our clients in the best direction for maximizing their claim
- Experienced in SR&ED: We do this for over 100 clients, annually – we’re familiar and have developed a strong working relationship with the CRA. In the event of an audit, we support our clients through the process and are fully engaged until you receive your refund
- We know what we’re doing: We possess intellectual property to reduce the chance of audit – we have an in-house internally developed methodology for structuring your claim to mitigate audit risk. We assure you the highest possibility of success
- Best practice improvements: We will train your staff and help your organization adopt a SR&ED framework that eases the claim process on an annual basis.
- Multidisciplinary and Industry-Specialized: The SR&ED field combines knowledge of the law, accounting and technology. Hence Stratos SR&ED consultants would greatly benefit your organization since it provides you with access to a multidisciplinary, industry-specialized team that includes consultants whom possess technical-scientific backgrounds, accounting backgrounds, and legal backgrounds.
- It’s risk free: our SR&ED services are entirely contingency fee based. If you don’t receive your refund, we don’t get paid.
The SR&ED Claim Process
SR&ED Kickoff
As a first-time claimant or new client, our experienced SR&ED consulting team will schedule an initial kick-off to educate you and your team on the SR&ED claim process, including discussing the eligibility requirements. We will leverage the kickoff meeting to establish requirements for ensuring a smooth SR&ED claim e.g. creating file sharing and collaboration platforms, leveraging technology to enable automation your SR&ED process, establishing availability etc.
SR&ED Discovery
Our consulting team will work with your staff from end-to-end in preparing a ‘SR&ED Project List’ where we compile all eligible activities into a technical narrative in the format the Government of Canada requires. During our discoveries, we will request documents to attest to activities performed and prepare a SR&ED Package which can be shared with CRA, in the event of a review.
Best Practice Recommendations
After compiling all the required data, we will be able to provide a report on best practice recommendations to implement or improve the quality of your internal SR&ED tracking tool.
Preparation of the Claim
Your SR&ED claim consists of two components (1) technical narrative for each project (2) financial costing schedules which outline your calculated refund amount. Our team will wholly prepare your claim and required tax forms to initiate the submission process.
Submission of the Claim
Our experienced tax accountants will work with you and your accountant to submit the required SR&ED schedules as part of your T2 Corporate Tax return to reduce the risk of error and increase the likelihood of success.
Post-mortem
We will schedule a post-mortem once CRA provides correspondence on your claim to discuss timeline on receiving your refund or managing CRA’s inquiries
Audit support
Regardless of what other consultants may claim, the CRA has a mandate to review SR&ED claimants to protect the interests of Canadian tax payers. Therefore, there is always a risk for audit, regardless of how low-risk and well crafted your SR&ED claim was. At Stratos, we wholly support you throughout the audit process and defend your claim by facilitating the communications with CRA and documentation. We guarantee positive audit results to our clients because we have full confidence in the work we submit as part of your claim.