Current CRA SRED Service Standards

Earlier this year, CRA published its new service standards for SRED claims:

"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 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.

"Our new service standards

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

• Refundable 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 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 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. A non-refundable claim will be processed as filed and will be subject to review or audit up to the legislated statute barred date for a given return."