1. Attribution and analytics platforms
Off-the-shelf tools couldn't stitch your data sources. Your team built one, and it broke, and they fixed it, and it broke differently. That iteration is experimentation.
The honest wedge
What Agencies and Consultants Can Actually Claim
Marketing services don't qualify for SRED, campaigns, creative, media buying, market research. That's the part everyone gets right. What they miss: the custom technology your agency builds to deliver those services can qualify, and for most agencies it's worth $30,000-$100,000+ per year in refundable credits.
Never qualifies
The work that never qualifies
- Campaign strategy and creative production
- Design, copywriting, media planning and buying
- SEO/SEM execution and social media management
- Market research and account management
- Routine website builds on standard platforms and templates
If a consultant tells you this stuff qualifies, walk away. That's how agencies get burned and audited.
Qualifies
The work that often qualifies
Custom technology built because off-the-shelf tools failed, where your team hit real technical walls and iterated through them. CRA decides; we assess and document.
Six patterns
The claimable builds hiding inside agency work
2. Integrations with unstable APIs
Ad platforms, CRMs, client systems that fight back. If your devs had to reverse-engineer behavior, that's technological uncertainty.
3. Custom AI/ML tooling
Fine-tuned models, custom agents, classification systems, when accuracy plateaus forced real iteration, not just prompt tweaks.
4. Automation infrastructure
Pipelines that had to survive real-world volume. Retries, race conditions, data consistency, engineering problems, not marketing ones.
5. Proprietary client-facing platforms
Portals, reporting engines, bidding tools, where the hard part was system behavior, not features on a roadmap.
6. Failed or abandoned builds
The tool you abandoned after three months still generated technical knowledge. Failed projects can be the strongest claims.
WHAT MOST AGENCIES MISS
More of your payroll is eligible than you think
Agencies often leave claimable time on the table because they only count developers. For a typical shop, the majority of technical staff time is eligible. Other roles can often claim 20-40% of their time as well, including management, when they're directing, reviewing, or unblocking experimental work. Our job is finding every honest dollar and defending it.
Not sure which bucket your work falls in? That's the whole point of the free call.
From the CRA
What CRA actually allows, with the source
Don't take our word for it. The three tests, the claim form, and the line numbers below come from the Canada Revenue Agency. Open the original if you want the proof.
-
canada.ca/taxes-sred ↗
Official SR&ED program
The CRA landing page for the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax incentive.
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Form T661 ↗
Form T661 (Expenditures Claim)
The form every SR&ED claim is filed on, project narrative and expenditure lines.
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Guide T4088 ↗
Guide T4088
Line-by-line instructions for Form T661, including what each expenditure line allows.
What is eligible
CRA's three tests
Work qualifies only if all three are true. Fail one and the project is out.
1
Technological uncertainty
A real obstacle that standard practice or public knowledge could not resolve in advance.
2
Systematic investigation
Hypothesis, planned test or experiment, analysis of results, not undirected trial-and-error.
3
Technological advancement
New technical knowledge gained, even if the project failed.
Excluded: routine engineering, market research, quality control, style or cosmetic changes, and commercial production of proven tech.
Form T661
Key line numbers
This is where the claim lives on paper. Narrative lines first, then the expenditure lines that become the credit.
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| 242 | Technological uncertainty (max 350 words) |
| 244 | Work performed, hypotheses, tests, results (max 700 words) |
| 246 | New technical knowledge / advancement (max 350 words) |
| 810 | Salary/wages of employees on SR&ED |
| 812 | Bonuses/profit-sharing included in line 810 |
| 320 | Materials consumed in SR&ED |
| 325 | Materials transformed in SR&ED |
| 340 | Arm's-length contract payments |
| 345 | Non-arm's-length contract payments |
| 360 | Overhead (traditional method; enter 0 if proxy) |
| 370 | Third-party payments |
| 400 | Total allowable SR&ED expenditures |
| 559 | Qualified SR&ED expenditures |
| 570 | Total qualified SR&ED expenditures (for ITC calculation) |
ITC schedule cross-reference: line 570 of T661 is reported on line 6712 of Form T2038(IND) for individuals, or lines 350/370 of Schedule T2SCH31 for corporations.