SR&ED for AI & Dev Agencies

You build AI products for clients — they should be claiming SR&ED.

Every AI prototype, custom model, and integration experiment you build for clients likely qualifies. Help your clients recover 35%+ of their R&D spend.

What Qualifies

Work you're already doing.

SR&ED eligibility comes down to technological uncertainty and systematic investigation. Here's what that looks like in your world.

Custom AI agent development

Can we build an autonomous agent that reliably handles this client's workflow?

Developing AI agents that orchestrate multi-step processes, make decisions under ambiguity, or interact with unpredictable real-world systems — especially when off-the-shelf solutions don't exist.

Model training & fine-tuning

Can we achieve production-grade accuracy for this domain-specific task?

Training custom models, experimenting with architectures and hyperparameters, building domain-specific datasets, and validating performance where the outcome wasn't guaranteed.

LLM orchestration & RAG pipelines

Can we build a retrieval system that provides accurate, grounded answers for this corpus?

Designing RAG architectures, chunking strategies, embedding pipelines, and prompt chains that go beyond documented tutorials — real engineering with uncertain outcomes.

Multi-model system design

Can we combine these models into a system that's more reliable than any one alone?

Architecting systems that route between multiple AI models, implement consensus mechanisms, or combine specialized models for complex tasks.

AI integration & deployment

Can we deploy this model at the required latency and cost within the client's infrastructure?

Solving novel deployment challenges — model optimization, inference infrastructure, real-time serving, and integration with client systems under production constraints.

Data pipeline engineering

Can we build a pipeline that cleans and transforms this messy data reliably enough for model training?

Building custom ETL pipelines, data validation systems, and feature stores for AI/ML workloads — especially when dealing with novel data formats or quality challenges.

Know the Line

Eligible vs. not eligible.

SR&ED rewards work that pushes the boundaries of what's known, not routine development. Here's how CRA draws the line.

Building a custom RAG pipeline for a legal client that required novel chunking strategies to handle 200-page contracts while preserving cross-reference context.

Setting up a standard LangChain RAG pipeline using documented tutorials and default configurations.

Developing an AI agent that autonomously triages customer support tickets — required extensive experimentation with prompt engineering, tool calling, and fallback strategies.

Configuring a chatbot using a pre-built framework with standard intent classification and scripted responses.

Training a custom vision model to detect manufacturing defects where existing models couldn't distinguish acceptable variation from actual defects.

Using a pre-trained image classification API to sort product photos into existing categories.

Designing a multi-agent system where specialized AI models collaborate to generate financial reports — no existing architecture handled the coordination requirements.

Connecting a client's CRM to an existing AI-powered email template generator via standard API integration.

Worked Example

The math behind your refund.

Ontario CCPC · $600K salaries · $150K contractors

Eligible expenditures

R&D salaries$600,000
Contractors (80%)$120,000
Proxy overhead (55%)$330,000
Total qualified$1,050,000

Tax credits

Ontario OITC (8%)$84,000
Ontario ORDTC (3.5%)$33,810
Federal ITC (35% CCPC)$326,267
Total credits$444,077
Your estimated CRA refund$444,077

Traditional Consultant

$133,223

30% of claim

You keep $310,854

Shreddit (Pay Later)

$44,408

10% of claim

Save $88,815 vs consultant

Shreddit (Pay Now)

$22,204

5% of claim

Save $111,019 vs consultant

How Shreddit Helps

From your workflow to your refund.

AI agencies generate massive amounts of SR&ED-eligible evidence without realizing it. Every model experiment, architecture decision, and failed approach documented in your GitHub repos, Jupyter notebooks, and project management tools is potential evidence for a claim.

Shreddit connects to your workflow and identifies which client projects involve technological uncertainty — the key CRA criterion. We track experiments, dead ends, and architectural pivots that demonstrate systematic investigation, then generate the technical narratives your clients need to file.

For agencies managing multiple clients, this is especially powerful. Set up the integration once, and Shreddit monitors SR&ED eligibility across your entire portfolio. Your clients get tax credits, you get a competitive advantage that closes deals.

Learn more about how SR&ED works

More Use Cases

SR&ED works across verticals.

Your clients' AI projects qualify. Help them claim it.

Join the waitlist and unlock SR&ED credits across your client portfolio.

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