SR&ED Companies Offered a Range of Opportunities

Canada is proud of being a hub for entrepreneurs. The country provides an excellent environment for supporting SR&ED startups as well as established companies. Its geographic proximity to the US alongside its economic stability also serves as a good place to do business.

As in most countries nowadays, Canada supports SR&ED programs in a variety of ways, through both direct and indirect government funding. Direct funding is provided with the federal budget including the Innovation and Skills program, which aims to increase new innovations as well as commercialize the existing ones. Another example is the Strategic Innovation Funds that have been introduced to combine with the Research and Development sector. Through grants and incentives, quite a number of R&D facilities have been set up.

With the aim of making Canada a world leader in innovation, the 2017 budget’s Innovation and Skills Plan identified six sectors that the government is seeking to increase through funding – cleantech, digital industries, agri-food, health/biosciences and clean resources. The amount of government funding varies for each sector with agri-food, cleantech and digital industries getting priority.

The majority of government assistance for innovative entrepreneurs has been through the indirect SR&ED tax program. This program has ensured that companies are able to claim credits on research and development expenditure incurred. However, it is vital to note that there are differences between the laws in the different provinces. Some offer fully refundable credits while others do not. To find out more about the credit in each province, visit our provinces and territories page.