SR&ED for physicians
SR&ED for physicians and medical professional corporations.
Your research can involve you, your medical corporation, a hospital and a university all at once. Who can claim SR&ED depends on who did the work and who paid for it, and your agreements usually decide both.
What decides whether you can claim?
Two things. First, the work has to be an experiment: your team faced a medical or technical question that existing knowledge couldn’t answer, and tested ways to answer it. A publication, a grant, ethics approval or a hospital appointment doesn’t decide this either way.
Second, the money has to line up. The corporation that claims has to be the one that did the work and paid for it, through salary, a contractor or materials. Your employment, research and funding agreements usually show which one that is, and your protocols, notebooks, emails and payroll show what happened.
Separate the research from the clinical work around it.
A claim usually covers only part of a project: the experimental work and its costs. Routine care and administration stay out.
Work to examine
- Experiments or analyses aimed at a question existing knowledge couldn’t answer
- Support work directly needed for those experiments, in proportion to them
- Salaries, materials and outside contractors for that work
- Attempts that didn’t work, when they were part of the experiments
Work to keep outside the claim
- Routine clinical care using established methods
- Ordinary data collection with no open scientific question
- Market research, administration and business development
- Costs paid by another organization, or not backed by agreements and records
Physician SR&ED questions
Can a medical professional corporation claim SR&ED?
Yes, if it did the work itself, paid for it and meets the program’s other rules. Agreements with a hospital, university or research institute can change who is able to claim.
What happens if the CRA reviews a physician SR&ED claim?
The CRA can ask for records showing the experimental work and the costs. Usually a research and technology advisor looks at the science and a financial reviewer looks at the numbers. Ethan answers those questions with you, at no extra cost.
How do you coordinate with my corporate accountant?
Ethan prepares the technical report (Form T661) and the provincial forms, then gives the figures to your accountant to file with your corporate return. Your accountant keeps the return; MITRAS doesn’t file tax returns.
Can my medical corporation claim research I did as its employee?
It may, if the corporation itself took on and paid for the work. Your salary has to be reasonable and match the time you spent on the research. If the work was done for someone else, such as a hospital or a sponsor, those agreements matter too.
Does clinical research automatically qualify?
No. Ethics approval, a grant or a publication doesn’t decide it. The work has to be an experiment aimed at a question existing knowledge couldn’t answer.
Which physician research costs may be included?
Depending on the facts: salaries and wages, materials used up in the research, and payments to outside contractors for the SR&ED work.
What should I bring to a first medical SR&ED conversation?
A short description of the project, the organizations involved, any research or funding agreements and a rough idea of the costs. Note where your protocols, results and time records are kept. Leave out anything that identifies patients.
What records show which company should claim?
Written agreements with your employer, hospital, university or funder matter most. Payroll, time records, emails, invoices and proof of payment help show who did the work and who paid.
What is the SR&ED filing deadline for a corporation?
A corporation generally has 18 months after its tax year-end to claim SR&ED for that year, with the technical report and the costs filed together.
Related physician SR&ED guidance
- For your accountantHow Ethan works with your CPA, who keeps your tax return.
- 2-minute Fit CheckFour questions to see whether your research is worth a closer look.
- Fees & termsNothing to pay up front. The fee comes out of the credits.
- SR&ED for clinical trialsFinding the experimental work inside a trial.
Official sources
Program guidance reviewed August 1, 2026.
Not sure where your research fits?
A 15-minute call is usually enough to tell whether it’s worth a closer look, and which of your organizations would claim.