New Service Standards

On April 1, 2018, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) updated its service standards for processing scientific research and experimental development (SR&ED) tax credit claims. The new standards provide clearer information about the time needed to complete a detailed review/audit of a claim. They also give a better estimate of the average processing time for most SR&ED claims that do not require additional review/audit.

Our new service standards

As of April 1, 2018, the SR&ED program has the following service standards for processing SR&ED claims:

• All claims which have been accepted as filed will be processed within 60 calendar days of the date we receive a complete claim.
• Refundable claims selected for review/audit will be completed within 180 calendar days of the date we receive a complete claim.

Our target is to meet these standards 90% of the time. 

What has changed?

Previously, the CRA reported the average processing time for all claims, including claims that were selected for review/audit and those that were not. The new service standards report on each of these situations separately. This provides businesses with a more accurate estimate of how much time it will take to process their claim.

The CRA no longer reports service standards for non-refundable claims that are selected for review/audit. When a non-refundable claim is selected for review/audit, it will be processed as filed and will be subject to review/audit up to the legislated statute barred date for a given income tax return.

Success rate

The CRA publishes the results of its service standards on an annual basis in the Departmental Results Reports.

Information on all CRA service standards is available at Service Standards in the CRA.