Most problems in medical SR&ED claims sit at the edges of the project. The research may qualify, but the claim includes too much routine work, misses salary time or doesn’t explain what the team was trying to learn. These are five common mistakes to catch early.
1. Assuming clinical research does not qualify
Working in a clinic or hospital does not rule out SR&ED. A clinical trial, assay project, imaging method, or translational study may include eligible work when the team is trying to generate new scientific or technological knowledge through experiment or analysis.
The project may also include work that does not qualify, such as routine testing, recruitment, patient care, and administration. Instead of asking whether the whole study is "research," ask what the team could not know in advance and what it did to find the answer.
2. Counting all the time, or none of it
Some teams leave out real experimental work because they assume a physician's time cannot be claimed. Others include every hour spent on an interesting project. Both can produce the wrong number.
Start with the work that may qualify. Then identify who performed it and how much time they reasonably spent on it. Salary or wages, certain contract costs, materials, and overhead may be connected to that work. For property acquired after December 15, 2024, equipment used for SR&ED can also be eligible again, subject to its own use tests. Patient care, teaching, routine operations, and unrelated administration should stay outside the estimate. Grants and provincial credits may also change the calculation.
3. Turning a paper into the claim narrative
A paper explains why a result matters to other specialists. Form T661 asks something more direct: What was unknown? What did you try during this tax year? What did you learn?
The science still has to be accurate, but the reader should not need your subspecialty to follow the story. Explain the starting problem, the approach, the results, and what changed next. Details belong in the answer when they help make that sequence clear.
4. Rebuilding the evidence at filing time
The CRA says the strongest supporting records are dated and specific to the work. Useful evidence can include protocol versions, lab notebooks, failed-run data, meeting notes, analysis histories, source-control logs, time records, and contracts.
You do not need to create a separate tax notebook. Keep the records your team already produces and make sure they show what happened, when, and who was involved. A short monthly check-in is far more reliable than trying to remember everything near the filing deadline.
5. Treating the deadline as flexible
For most corporations, the SR&ED reporting deadline is 12 months after the T2 return is due. That is generally 18 months after the tax year ends. Once the deadline passes, the CRA will not accept changes that add the missing claim information.
Starting earlier also leaves time to sort out grants, contracts, ownership, time estimates, and missing records without rushing.
Avoiding these mistakes makes the claim clearer and easier to support. If any of these problems look familiar, a confidential fit conversation can help determine whether the work is worth reviewing.
Updated November 5, 2026: added the return of capital equipment costs for property acquired after December 15, 2024, enacted through Bill C-15.