How long does an SR&ED refund take?

For refundable claims, the CRA's service standards are 60 days if the claim is accepted as filed, 90 days if it is reviewed and every project has pre-claim approval, and 180 days if it is reviewed and any project does not. The clock starts once the CRA has the complete claim and your tax return. Non-refundable claims have no service standard.

How likely is an SR&ED audit?

The CRA does not publish the share of claims it reviews. Its statistics show that in 2025-26, 90% of processed claims were accepted as filed, 6% were accepted after changes and 4% were denied. Data obtained through access-to-information requests and reported in 2021 put the review rate at about 18% in 2017 to 2019 and 11% in 2020, but that is secondary and dated.

Can I withdraw my SR&ED claim once it is selected for review?

No. The CRA's review guide says a claim cannot be withdrawn once it has been selected for review. You can still decide how to respond to the proposal letter, make written representations, and object to the final assessment if you disagree.

What happens if my SR&ED claim is denied?

You first receive a proposal letter and usually have 30 days to respond in writing. If the CRA then reassesses, you have 90 days from the date on the notice of assessment or reassessment to file a notice of objection. If the objection decision goes against you, you can appeal to the Tax Court of Canada within 90 days of that decision.

Can my SR&ED consultant attend the CRA review meeting?

Yes, if you ask for it. The CRA's guide says an authorized representative can take part in meetings if you request it and can make representations for you. A signing officer must authorize the representative. Your own technical people still need to explain the work, because the reviewer wants to hear from the people who did it.

Does pre-claim approval stop an SR&ED review?

Not entirely. Pre-claim approval settles the technical eligibility of the approved work, so a claim made up only of approved projects can still get an expenditure-only review, generally within 90 days. If a project differs significantly from what was approved, or the claim includes projects without approval, the full review process and the 180-day standard apply.

SR&ED audit and CRA review: what to expect in 2026

After you file, the CRA risk-assesses every SR&ED claim. Most are accepted as filed: 90% in 2025-26. Some are selected for a technical review, a financial review or both, usually held virtually. You get a proposal letter, about 30 days to respond, then a notice of reassessment you can object to within 90 days.

This is an independent guide. ClearSRED is not affiliated with the Canada Revenue Agency. It explains the process; it is not tax or legal advice for your situation.

SR&ED review at a glance (as of October 2026)

Item	What applies	Source
Refundable claim, accepted as filed	60 days from a complete claim and tax return	CRA: After you claim
Refundable claim, reviewed, all projects have pre-claim approval	90 days	CRA: After you claim
Refundable claim, reviewed, any project without approval	180 days	CRA: After you claim
Non-refundable claims	No service standard	CRA: After you claim
Claim outcomes, 2025-26	90% accepted as filed, 6% accepted after changes, 4% denied (23,677 claims processed)	CRA: Program statistics
Credits claimed vs allowed, 2025-26	$4.9 billion claimed, $4.6 billion allowed	CRA: Program statistics
Reviewed refundable claims done in 180 days, 2025-26	92.5% (target 90%)	CRA: Program statistics
Pre-meeting information requests	Generally due within 30 days	CRA: Review guide
Response to a proposal letter	Generally 30 days from the letter's date	CRA: Review guide
Notice of objection	90 days from the notice of assessment or reassessment; extension can be requested up to one year after that	CRA: P148
Appeal to the Tax Court of Canada	Within 90 days of the objection decision, or after 90 days with no decision	CRA: P148

What happens after you file an SR&ED claim?

Every claim goes through a risk assessment. If the CRA has what it needs, it processes the claim as filed. If it needs more information about the work or the costs, it selects the claim for review.

For refundable claims, the CRA's service standards are 60 days if accepted as filed, 90 days if reviewed and every project has pre-claim approval, and 180 days if reviewed and any project lacks approval or differs materially from what was approved. The clock starts when the CRA has both the complete claim and your tax return. Non-refundable claims have no service standard.

The CRA's current SR&ED pages do not publish a separate standard for claimant-requested adjustments, such as adding a claim to a return you have already filed, so there is no published timeline for these. They must still reach the CRA by the SR&ED reporting deadline.

If this is your first claim, or you haven't claimed in the past three years, you may be selected for the First-Time Claimant Advisory Service. It is mandatory if you are selected, but it is guidance for future claims rather than an audit.

How often are SR&ED claims reviewed, and what are the outcomes?

The CRA does not publish its review rate. It does publish outcomes: in 2025-26, of 23,677 claims processed, 90% were accepted as filed, 6% were accepted after changes and 4% were denied. About $4.6 billion of the $4.9 billion in credits claimed was allowed.

Since claims are normally adjusted or denied only after some form of review, that suggests at least about 10% of claims were reviewed that year, though the CRA does not confirm a figure. Secondary data is older and less certain: access-to-information figures reported in a 2021 news article put reviews at about 18% of claims in 2017 to 2019 and 11.1% in 2020. Treat those as context, not current odds.

What triggers an SR&ED review?

The CRA says only that claims are selected based on its risk assessment "or for other reasons, such as random sampling." It does not publish its criteria, so any list of triggers is informed opinion.

What the CRA has said publicly:

First-time and returning claimants may be selected for the advisory service described above.
Claim preparer and billing information (T661 Part 9): when the CRA began collecting it, it said it would analyse the information "to determine correlations with higher risk of non-compliance."
Unclear claims: the review guide lists reasons it may need more information, such as unclear objectives, unclear descriptions of what work was done or by whom, unclear start and end points, SR&ED mixed with non-SR&ED work, and support work that doesn't appear commensurate with the needs.

Practitioners commonly add large claims, sharp year-over-year increases, a high share of contractor costs, the same project claimed for many years, and figures that don't reconcile between the T661, Schedule 31, payroll and the T2. These are not CRA-published criteria, but each is a good reason to make sure your file is tidy.

What happens in an SR&ED technical review?

A research and technology advisor (RTA) decides whether the work meets the definition of SR&ED. The RTA reports to a research and technology manager.

First contact
The reviewer phones to explain the review, the projects and issues in scope, the meeting format, who should attend and what information you have.
Initial letter
A letter follows with the information requested and a meeting agenda. Information requested before the meeting is generally due within 30 days.
Review meeting
The CRA runs most reviews virtually, within your business hours. You can ask for an on-site visit, but the CRA grants these only in exceptional cases, decided case by case. Reviewers may tour your premises through screen sharing, recordings or a live demonstration.
Interviews and evidence
The RTA interviews the people who did or supervised the work, asks how the claim was prepared and how SR&ED was separated from routine work, and looks at evidence. Dated, work-specific records created during the work are the best evidence.

Expect questions like: what was technologically uncertain at the start, and why couldn't a competent professional solve it with known methods? What hypotheses did you test? What failed, and what did you learn? For software teams, commit history, pull request discussions, design documents and benchmark results answer these well. See SR&ED for software development for what reviewers look for in software claims.

If you can't or won't provide information, the CRA can seek it from third parties under subsection 231.1(1) of the Income Tax Act. You cannot withdraw a claim once it is selected for review.

What happens in an SR&ED financial review?

A financial reviewer (FR) checks that the expenditures are eligible, correctly calculated and supported. The FR reports to a financial review manager and often works alongside the RTA.

The FR will typically look at how salaries were allocated to SR&ED (time records or a reasonable, documented method), ledgers and journals, invoices and receipts, contracts with subcontractors, the proxy or traditional overhead choice, government assistance and provincial credits, and whether the T661 ties to Schedule 31, payroll and your financial statements. Practitioners say areas that often draw questions include overstated time for senior staff, contractor costs that aren't SR&ED or were done outside Canada, and costs for projects the RTA found ineligible.

Been contacted by a CRA reviewer?

Review support is included with every claim we prepare, and we also help companies reviewed on claims someone else prepared: evidence pack, meeting preparation and written responses.

What are the possible outcomes, and how do you respond?

A review ends one of three ways: the claim is accepted, adjusted, or disallowed in full. If the CRA proposes changes, you receive a proposal package with an SR&ED project eligibility report, a proposal letter and the financial impact. In some cases a penalty may be proposed.

You can accept the findings or send written representations, generally within 30 days of the proposal letter's date. If you don't respond in time, the review concludes on the proposed findings. If your representations change the result, you get a written summary and an assessment based on the revised findings; if not, you get written reasons and an assessment based on the original findings.

Good representations respond point by point to the eligibility report, quote the relevant CRA policy, and attach evidence the reviewer didn't see.

What if you disagree with the CRA's decision?

You have three administrative steps during the review, and two formal steps once the CRA has reassessed.

Talk to the RTA or FR as soon as a concern comes up.
Escalate to the manager (research and technology manager or financial review manager) if it isn't resolved.
Request an administrative review on Form RC532 after you receive the proposal package. Tell the reviewers you intend to do so before the 30-day proposal period ends, and file before they close the file. It is not a second technical review: it checks that the review followed SR&ED legislation and policy and that you received due process.
File a notice of objection within 90 days from the date on the notice of assessment or reassessment, through My Business Account or on Form T400A. If you miss it, you can ask for an extension up to one year after the deadline.
Appeal to the Tax Court of Canada within 90 days of the objection decision, or if the CRA hasn't decided within 90 days of your objection.

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights also applies, including the right to a formal review and appeal, to service in your official language, and to be represented by a person of your choice.

How should you prepare for an SR&ED review?

Treat the first call as the start of the review, not a formality.

Build an evidence pack per project: a one-page summary of the uncertainty, hypotheses, experiments and results, with links to dated records such as tickets, commits, design notes, test logs and meeting notes. The CRA's Guide T4088 Appendix 2 lists the kinds of supporting information it expects.
Reconcile the numbers first: time allocations, payroll, contracts and the T661 should tie out before the FR asks.
Choose who attends: the engineers who did the work and a technical lead who can explain decisions, plus someone from finance for the expenditure side. Your preparer can join as an authorized representative if you request it, but the technical people should do most of the talking.
Reread past CRA recommendations and the eligibility guidelines that apply to your work.
Avoid overstating what was uncertain, reading from a script, creating documents after the fact and presenting them as contemporaneous, or arguing about business value instead of technology.

How does pre-claim approval reduce technical-review risk?

Since April 1, 2026, eligible businesses can ask the CRA to confirm a project's technical eligibility in advance using Form T1322. If every project in a refundable claim has pre-claim approval, a review is generally expenditure-only and the service standard is 90 days instead of 180. The approval does not cover costs, so the financial review still matters, and projects that change significantly from what was approved go back to a full review.

How ClearSRED helps with CRA reviews

We prepare claims from your own engineering records, and an experienced SR&ED reviewer checks every claim, so the evidence trail exists before the CRA asks for it. CRA review support is included with every claim we prepare, under a flat fee agreed up front. If you are being reviewed on a claim we didn't prepare, we can help with the evidence pack, meeting preparation and written representations. See what SR&ED consultants cost for how fee models compare.

SR&ED audit and CRA review: what to expect in 2026

SR&ED review at a glance (as of October 2026)

What happens after you file an SR&ED claim?

How often are SR&ED claims reviewed, and what are the outcomes?

What triggers an SR&ED review?

What happens in an SR&ED technical review?

First contact

Initial letter

Review meeting

Interviews and evidence