RDP Associates, Toronto, ON

Nov 25, 2014 Recently, Brian Cookson had the opportunity to be a participant on a panel in Ottawa with CRA regarding certain SR&ED issues. The main thrust of the discussion related to site reviews carried out by CRA on claims filed. Some insights are as follows: CRA was provided with $10M a few years ago to hire additional Research and Technology Advisors (“RTA”) and train or retrain all technical staff. As such, claimants saw in an increase in the intensity and number of site reviews. Many claimants now feel CRA has gone too far in their documentation requirements; the site reviews are taking too long and there is little recourse when the RTA decides to disallow all or part of the claim. # CRA re-iterated that claimants can contact the RTA’s Manager if they feel they are at an impasse with the RTA. Further, they can request a second site review. RDP suggested a service timeline be put in place for completing CRA site reviews. CRA said they would consider it but RDP has found that we can usually agree to a timeline with CRA as to when a site review can be completed, on a case by case basis, even though there is no formal procedure in place for doing so. While RDP has enjoyed a low review rate by CRA and ultimately an excellent outcome on site reviews, CRA continues to take a tougher approach than in the past. However, using RDP’s ICP program and filing your SR&ED claim within 3-4 months after year end has been shown to cut CRA site reviews and queries significantly. Clients receive their SR&ED refund more quickly too.

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