Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitao announced cutbacks to the Quebec SR&ED tax credit program during his December 2nd economic update. Although SR&ED is a federal program, each province or territory may also provide provincial or territorial tax credits to qualifying corporations carrying out SR&ED in their respective province or territory.
Effective immediately, minimum eligibility thresholds will be introduced for the Quebec provincial tax credit. The provincial government will be establishing a minimum expenditure threshold situated $50,000 (for companies with less than $50 million in assets) and $225,000 (for companies with assets totalling over $75 million). This threshold will increase linearly from $50,000 to $225,000 for companies with assets between $50 million and $75 million.
Secondly, Quebec’s enhanced SR&ED tax credit rates for research contracts, private partnership research, and fees paid to a research consortium will be standardized (to be set at same rate as researchers’ salaries) as of December 3, 2014.
