We have had some people contact us with a question about whether non profit organizations (NPOs) can claim for the SR&ED program. The short answer is, unfortunately no. However – corporate clients or partners can.
Why is this?
The CRA states that only business and corporate tax-payers (including Canadian-controlled private corporations, public and foreign-owned companies) can claim for the SR&ED program. While NPOs do file income tax returns, most are tax-exempt. As the SR&ED is an ITC (tax credit – sometimes refundable, depending on the business), this means that there would be no taxes to apply the ITC to.