The Final SRED Question

The fifth question which CRA uses to assess the eligibility of a SRED claim is whether there was kept a record of the hypothesis and the test results while the work was being done. CRA wants the docs to have been created at the time the work was happening, and I know from experience that they have ways of determining the age of documents if they want to do a forensic test on them.  Basically, they want to see why the work claimed was necessary for the resolution of the technological uncertainties. There are many docs routinely created in a business, and if you have done SRED, you probably have a lot more evidence of your work than you realize.

One reason for the documentation, and the one I hear CRA reviewers most often tendering, is so that they have proof that the work was done. I don’t accept that and usually ask how did this product come into existence if the work wasn’t done?  A more reasonable reason for this requirement is to ensure that the knowledge is preserved and that what has been accomplished can be replicated.  

Here is the link to the other posts in this series: http://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.ca