Do You Like SR&ED Contingency Fees? Hate them? Have your say!
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A few weeks ago, we let you know that the Department of Finance launched a Consultation Regarding The Impact of Contingency Fees on The Effectiveness of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentive Program. Time is running out to submit your responses (due October 1st)! After reading through the vague and nondescript call for submissions, we’ve opted to make things a little simpler for you by creating a handy survey you can complete online instead.
SR&ED Surveys During Difficult Times
In 2002, information was gathered from 306 companies to help improve the SR&ED program after the “dark years” of 1995-1998. During these “dark years”, SR&ED claims were processed in a slow, inconsistent manner and reviews were often painful experiences for everyone involved. Anecdotal evidence suggests we are entering a similar period.
Government’s focus has now shifted away from improving the SR&ED program, concentrating instead on regulating third-party tax preparers. While it appears to be a useful exercise, ultimately this will take time, money, and focus away from what should be the priority: making consultants unnecessary by improving & simplifying the program (as noted in this blog post).
Help the Department of Finance remain focused on improving the administration of the program – provide your feedback today! To help make it quick and easy for our readers, we have read through the consultation request, drawn out the questions, and created our handy form which will turn your answers into a draft letter covering your key concerns. We’ve structured it so that the draft goes to you, which you can then edit and forward to the Department of Finance.
Note: You must edit and forward the email to the Department of Finance! This form will get you started. Contact information is visible on their website as well as in the email that will be sent to you. It’s up to you to edit it to suit your needs – this survey will speed up the process and make sure no key points are missed!
If you have in any way benefited from the SR&ED program, please take the 5 minutes to fill out the form (longer if you rant/rave). Please be sure to share with others in your space!
Click to Tweet about SR&ED!
The Form Below Will Create Your SR&ED Contingency Fees Letter!
Be sure to complete the sentences that we have started for you, and write clearly. This will ensure that the survey creates a properly structured email from the answers you provide. After completing the survey, you’ll be able to edit your answers before sending the email to the Department of Finance. You can even let them know that two similar surveys were done in 1996 that ask almost identical questions. They are visible here and here. These are real surveys conducted by professionals in a manner that generated measurable results. The Department of Finance might want to check them out, since receiving only qualitative responses isn’t going to generate much in the way of real data. But we digress… on to our survey!
