Welcome to SR&ED Spring Training 2023!
Lots of things are happening in the world of sports, right now ﹘ the NHL regular season is winding down and heading toward the trade deadline, March Madness in NCAA basketball is about to start, we’re halfway through the NBA regular season, and the World Baseball Classic is just a few days away.
But perhaps one of the most anticipated events on the sports calendar is the start of Spring Training in Major League Baseball. Fans hope that their team will continue the successful run they had at the end of the previous season, or get a good start for the regular season that will lead to an appearance at the coveted World Series in October at the end of it all.
With over 162 regular season games, there will be ups and downs, victories and losses. And throughout each baseball season’s life cycle, players and teams will make adjustments, try out new pitches or combinations of defenders or lineups of hitters; experiment based on various statistics and analytical and experiential knowledge— all in an effort to give their team the best hope of achieving that World Series ring.
SR&ED Innovation Spring Training Mindset
Innovation and Research as Part of Business Growth Strategy
Many Canadian businesses experience a similar life cycle not only in terms of business growth and strategy but also in terms of innovation and research and experimental development. And each attempt to innovate and bring something new to the business and marketplace or industry can also come with its own ebb and flow.
It is fairly safe to say that the innovation mindset of most businesses is to provide products or services that have an impact, that make life better for their customers— this could be considered the business equivalent of a World Series ring, the ultimate prize.
Just as there will be wins and losses throughout a baseball season, there will be similar wins in losses throughout a business’s attempt to innovate toward its ultimate prize, as well. Wins are obviously great. Everybody celebrates successes. But thankfully with the SR&ED Tax Incentive program, experiencing a setback in your experimental development can also be a win for your company.
SR&ED Tax Credit as Part of Overall Investment in Innovation
The SR&ED tax credit program seeks to support Canadian-controlled corporations in their experimental development journeys. SR&ED is not interested in your destination and whether you actually achieve it or not— it doesn’t care about your quest for a World Series ring. The SR&ED tax credit program cares about the different methods or combinations that you tried or considered and analyzed along the way. SR&ED especially cares about whether those different methods or attempts to combine different resources failed, or produced unexpected results.
Most coaches have a particular strategy when they step out onto the field to face a specific team, a particular pitcher, and certain hitters to try to give their team an advantage and a chance to win. Most innovation project managers similarly have a basic idea of how they would like to see their experimental development process go— but the actual development process itself rarely goes according to plan. Failures happen, and adjustments have to be made along the way— although it may not always be obvious just which adjustments to make.
In most player interviews after a loss, players are asked “what can your team take away from this loss” or “what does your team need to do better”. A failure isn’t truly a failure if you learn something from it. Each try generates new knowledge that is then applied to the next step in development, to the next step in the evolution of a project— in the evolution of a team’s ultimate success. It’s often difficult for innovators to switch from thinking about business success in developing a viable, valuable service or product, to thinking about the journey, and the steps they took to reach that success.
It’s also very important for your experimental processes that your team track their efforts through spreadsheets or photos or our helpful SRED kit, and when it comes time to talk with your SRED Unlimited consultant, be ready to talk about these kinds of details to help maximize your claim.
Why SR&ED is Part of The Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Pardon the cliché but the “teamwork makes the dream work” concept is really how innovation is done.
Your innovation work and investment in innovation you’ve already done may actually qualify for SR&ED tax credits.
The concept of teamwork applies not only to different people within a company to complete the research and development work but also to sources of funding or tax advantages and strategies to help your company reinvest in future innovation work.
As part of your business’s ultimate success story, the SR&ED Tax Incentive program can be a valuable part of your resource investment strategy. And so is your relationship with SRED Unlimited and your SRED Unlimited Consultant. Consider us the kind of “statistics research and scouting” side of baseball. We do all the prep work of collecting the research and development work details of your projects, writing up the reports, and preparing the financials and T2 schedules, using the most commonly used tax prep software, and then submitting the claim on your behalf.
The Home Stretch with SRED Unlimited
Whether you completed scientific research and experimental development work within a given fiscal year or started work that will continue into the next year, your innovative work and attempts may qualify for SR&ED tax credits every year.
This is why so many commercial kitchens, bakeries, craft breweries, skincare and cosmetics companies, cannabis companies, computer software, printing and manufacturing companies, and others, have chosen to team up with SRED Unlimited to help them apply for SR&ED tax credits. Each year, the government awards over $4 billion to over 20,000 Canadian-controlled private corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships.
Maybe not the bling of a World Series ring, but definitely a home run for many companies who can reinvest that money into their future successes and prospects.
Including the SRED Unlimited Team as part of your SR&ED team can definitely help make the dream of receiving a tax credit or refund of expenses invested in innovation work for you.
Contact us today and let us be part of your team.