In late 2008, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) deployed a revised version of one of the key forms required for SR&ED applications, known as form T661. Although the core content of the SR&ED submission remains largely similar, the form has been revised to place a much higher focus on ensuring there is suitable available contemporaneous documentation to support a claim.

The new form has a specific checklist to identify if the claimant has documentation such as project planning documents, design of experiments, project notebooks, source code, records of trial runs, progress reports and meeting minutes, test data and analysis of results, photos and videos, prototypes and scrap, as well as time sheets. More important than almost any other project record, the government desires to ensure the claimant is keeping track of time spent on SR&ED activities (by person, by project) in a contemporaneous manner, meaning that time is accurately tracked throughout the year rather than estimated at year-end.

As part of TSI's commitment to ensuring credible and successful claim submissions, we will be working closely with our clients to ensure they have a suitable time tracking process in place and are collecting appropriate documentation to meet the CRA's requirements. Contact TSI for more information about successfully managing your company's documentation systems.