Canada: If your claim is reviewed

A CRA review has deadlines: the information request usually gives 30 days, the proposal period is the window for an administrative review, and a notice of objection must be filed within 90 days of the notice of assessment or reassessment. Before you reply to anything, read your engagement letter to see what help it provides, tell your adviser the same day, and take advice from someone who can see the letter and the claim. This page describes the process in general terms from the CRA's own guide for claimants; it is not a guide to handling a review, and nothing here replaces advice on your own case.

If the CRA selects an SR&ED claim for review, one of the reviewers assigned to the claim contacts you by phone, then sends an initial letter summarising the call. The letter lists the information requested, with deadlines, generally 30 days, and sets out an agenda for a meeting.1Source 1Canada Revenue Agency, The SR&ED Review Process: A Guide for Claimants (20 April 2026).

Reviewers ask for the project information behind lines 270 to 282 of Form T661 and for financial records. The CRA says the best supporting evidence is documentation that is dated and specific to the work performed. Reviewers interview the people who did or supervised the work, and a tour of the premises is usually virtual. The research and technology advisor prepares an SR&ED Project Eligibility Report.1Source 1Canada Revenue Agency, The SR&ED Review Process: A Guide for Claimants (20 April 2026). The your responsibility page explains why the corporation holds these records, and the ownership of records clause is where to look if the adviser holds some of them.

If the CRA proposes adjustments to the claim, you receive a proposal package; otherwise you receive the report and a final letter. A notice of assessment or reassessment follows.1Source 1Canada Revenue Agency, The SR&ED Review Process: A Guide for Claimants (20 April 2026). If the claim is reduced, the interest and penalty rules on the your responsibility page apply.

The CRA's guidelines set out three steps for concerns during a review: raise them with the research and technology advisor or financial reviewer, then with their manager, then request an administrative review on Form RC532 before the 30 day proposal period ends. An administrative review is not a second technical review; it checks that legislation, policies, procedures and due process were followed, and ends with the decision maintained or reconsidered.2Source 2Canada Revenue Agency, Guidelines for resolving claimants' SR&ED concerns (5 December 2025). Separately, you can file a notice of objection within 90 days from the date of the notice of assessment or reassessment, online through My Business Account or by mail on Form T400A. An appeals officer reviews the assessment, and after that the route is the Tax Court of Canada.1Source 1Canada Revenue Agency, The SR&ED Review Process: A Guide for Claimants (20 April 2026). 3Source 3Canada Revenue Agency, Resolving disputes (corporations) (11 September 2026). Each of these has a deadline, and the choice is a matter for advice.

What your adviser must do depends on the engagement letter, which is why the review and audit support clause matters before you sign. In a review, the useful things an adviser does are these.

• Produce the project information and financial records quickly and in order.
• Prepare the people who did the work for their interviews, without putting words in their mouths.
• Correct any error in the claim before the CRA finds it, within the reporting deadline where more is to be added.
• Tell you plainly what a proposal package means and what your options are, including the administrative review and the objection and their deadlines.

The claim preparer is named in Part 9 of Form T661 and shares the penalty for wrong preparer information, but nothing the preparer does moves the tax, interest or penalty on the claim itself off the corporation.4Source 4Canada Revenue Agency, T4088, Guide to Form T661, Part 9 (18 February 2026); Income Tax Act section 162(5.1) to (5.3). If the adviser's help is charged by the hour, agree an estimate and a ceiling before the work starts. The companies under review page and the claim reduced on review page cover the fee side.

• Your responsibility and complaints about an adviser in Canada
• How do you handle a tax authority review? and is review support included?
• Getting independent advice

Sources

1. Canada Revenue Agency, The SR&ED Review Process: A Guide for Claimants (20 April 2026).     Back
2. Canada Revenue Agency, Guidelines for resolving claimants' SR&ED concerns (5 December 2025).  Back
3. Canada Revenue Agency, Resolving disputes (corporations) (11 September 2026).  Back
4. Canada Revenue Agency, T4088, Guide to Form T661, Part 9 (18 February 2026); Income Tax Act section 162(5.1) to (5.3).  Back