The Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Fillable T661 Form

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) offers a fillable and savable T661 Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Expenditures Claim form as a PDF. 

What’s Different About This T661 Form?

You can easily complete the Interactive T661 PDF form after downloading and saving the ‘PDF fillable/saveable’ form from the CRA’s website.¹ While information does not auto-populate in the financial section of the form (as it will in some corporate tax preparation software packages) there are still some nice features in the form:

1. You can save the form and share it with other people in your firm or your accountant.
2. If you make a mistake, such as improperly inputting a business number, a pop-up window will appear and remind you of how the line is to be filled out properly.
3. There is a button on each page of the form that allows you to clear data — but, be careful, as the entire form will be cleared.
4. There is a help button that takes you to a Government of Canada website for assistance in filling in PDF forms.

Don’t Forget to Fill In and Submit Your Schedule 31

When it comes time to send in your T661, though, be sure to remember to fill out and submit your completed T2SCH31 Investment Tax Credit – Corporations form on time.² If you don’t complete and file your corporate tax forms the CRA will automatically decline your SR&ED tax credit on the basis of having “incomplete” information in the corresponding fiscal year.

In the case of Easy Way Cattle Oilers Ltd. v. The Queen (2015), the Tax Court of Canada ruled that Schedule 31 is a prescribed form that must be submitted along with the T661 before its deadline.³ In this particular case, the Appellant had filed both a T661 form and a Schedule 31, but submitted the Schedule 31 a couple of weeks after its deadline had passed, which had been the same deadline as the T661. The court ruled against the Appellant, who was seeking to get an SR&ED tax credit on the basis of having filed the T661 on time properly.

We have recently been contacted by someone who forgot this form. They were denied in full, for the same reason as the above legal ruling. The lesson is clear: proceed with caution if you are not familiar with all the forms required. 

In conclusion, the fillable T661 form is a great tool to use, but be sure you submit it along with your Schedule 31 properly and on time. The claimant should also ensure before submitting these forms that all the information provided is valid, so as to not be considered fraudulent. The CRA released a reminder on this topic on April 6, 2022; see our article Important CRA Reminder and Warning for Claimants Issued April 6, 2022, for details.

Have you used the fillable T661 form to file your SR&ED claim?

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