SR&ED · what it costs to hire out
What an SR&ED consultant actually costs you
Most SR&ED consultants work on contingency — a percentage of the refund they recover. That makes the fee invisible until the cheque arrives, and it scales with your claim rather than with the work. This page does that arithmetic, makes a call on the common case, and is straight about when a consultant is worth every dollar.
Before the arithmetic, the ceiling. Knowing what the program actually pays is what lets you judge a quote — a percentage means nothing until you know the base it applies to.
The federal program pays a 35% enhanced refundable credit for CCPCs on the first $6 million of qualifying expenditure — a maximum enhanced credit of $2.1 million a year. Budget 2025 raised that limit directly from $3M to $6M. Source: CRA SR&ED program; Budget 2025. There was no $4M intermediate step — if a quote cites one, it is out of date.
A contingency fee is priced on your refund, not on the work
This is the part worth sitting with. Two companies file structurally similar claims — same technical narrative length, same T661, same supporting records. One recovers $40,000, the other $180,000. At the same contingency rate the second company pays four and a half times more for substantially the same filing.
| Your refund | Fee at 15% | Fee at 20% | Fee at 25% | You keep (at 20%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $20,000 | $3,000 | $4,000 | $5,000 | $16,000 |
| $60,000 | $9,000 | $12,000 | $15,000 | $48,000 |
| $100,000 | $15,000 | $20,000 | $25,000 | $80,000 |
| $200,000 | $30,000 | $40,000 | $50,000 | $160,000 |
Where it flips
Here is the call. If your claim is in the tens of thousands, your R&D is a normal part of how you build, and you have not been audited, a contingency percentage is expensive for what it is — you are paying a share of the outcome for work whose difficulty is roughly flat. If your eligibility is genuinely arguable, or you are exposed to a review, that same percentage can be the best money you spend all year. The variable that should move your decision is how contestable your claim is, not how big it is.
When you should hire a consultant anyway
There are real cases where a good SR&ED consultant earns their percentage several times over:
Hire one when:
- You have been audited before, or expect to be. Defending a claim under CRA review is adversarial, technical work with real money at stake. This is not a documentation exercise — it is a negotiation, and experience is worth paying for.
- Your eligibility is genuinely ambiguous. If you cannot tell whether your work clears the technological-uncertainty bar, a specialist who has seen hundreds of claims will read that line faster and more accurately than you will.
- The claim is large and the science is contested. On a seven-figure expenditure base, the difference between a well-argued and a weakly-argued narrative can exceed any fee.
- Nobody internally can write the technical narrative. A consultant who interviews your engineers and turns it into CRA-shaped prose is doing something real.
What we do, and what we do not do
We are not an SR&ED consultancy and we do not write your T661 technical narrative. If that is the job you need done, the section above applies and you should price a consultant properly rather than look for a shortcut.
What GrantCompass does is the part either side of the claim. It checks whether you qualify, walks the claim steps so you document as you go rather than reconstructing a year backwards, and — the part most SR&ED filers miss — tells you which of 650+ other Canadian programs you also qualify for. A company claiming SR&ED is frequently eligible for hiring, training, export and equipment funding it never applies for, and none of that is in your consultant’s scope.
So who catches mistakes? Your accountant files the claim and is accountable for the return. We check your eligibility against the program's real conditions and keep the documentation honest as you go. Nobody in that arrangement is reviewing your technical narrative the way a specialist would — which is the actual thing you are buying when you pay a consultant, and the reason the section above exists.
A tax credit, claimed through your corporate tax filing. Document as you go, then file with your accountant — with the claim steps laid out, your eligibility checked against the program’s real conditions, and a running list of what you still need.
For grant programs — not tax credits — the workspace also drafts the application with you. SR&ED is a filing, not an application, so it gets the steps treatment instead. We would rather say that plainly than let you find out after paying.
See what you would actually claim
Your consultant is quoting on one credit. Most companies claiming SR&ED also qualify for hiring, training, export or equipment funding they never apply for. Both plans are shown, and no account is needed to look.
The questions people actually ask before hiring
Is the fee negotiable? Often, particularly on larger claims and on repeat engagements. The percentage quoted first is rarely the floor.
Does the fee apply to provincial credits too? Ask explicitly. Federal and provincial credits are separate, and whether the contingency applies to the combined recovery materially changes the total.
Who defends an audit, and is that included? Some engagements price audit defence separately. Establish this before signing, not after a review letter arrives.
What happens if the claim is denied? Pure contingency means no fee on no recovery — which is genuinely valuable risk transfer, and part of what the percentage buys.