SR&ED for software development
Software is one of the most common SR&ED fields and one of the most misunderstood. Building a product isn't automatically SR&ED; resolving a genuine technical unknown along the way often is.
The line the CRA draws is about uncertainty, not novelty of the app.
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Where the eligible work usually hides
- Performance under a hard constraint — keeping latency, throughput or memory within a bound the known techniques couldn't hit.
- Novel algorithms where existing approaches demonstrably failed and the outcome was uncertain.
- Scaling or concurrency problems with no established solution for your specific conditions.
- Integrating systems in ways where the behaviour genuinely couldn't be predicted in advance.
What usually doesn't qualify
Routine development — standard CRUD apps, well-trodden framework work, UI changes, configuration, and bug-fixing with a known cause — generally isn't SR&ED, however hard it was. The test is whether the outcome was uncertain given the existing knowledge base, not whether the work was difficult or new to your team.
The evidence you already have
Software teams sit on strong contemporaneous evidence: commit history showing the dead ends and rewrites, pull requests and reviews, tickets describing the problem, load-test results, and design docs. SREDlog connects GitHub (read-only) and reads that trail to surface the experimental work and draft the T661 narrative around it.
Frequently asked questions
Not by itself. Adopting a new tool is only eligible if it created a genuine technological uncertainty you had to resolve systematically. Using a new framework the ordinary way is routine development.
Yes. SR&ED rewards the attempt to advance knowledge, not the commercial result. A well-documented failed experiment can be a strong claim.
Commit and ticket activity can reconstruct a defensible time picture. SREDlog builds one and flags where it's thin. See time tracking.
Turn your repo into a SR&ED claim
Start a free trial, connect GitHub, and see the eligible work surface from your own history.
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This guide is general information, not tax advice. SR&ED rules, rates and limits change, so confirm the current figures with the CRA or your advisor before you file.