Welcome to TSI's Q4 2010 newsletter, a quarterly publication distributed to our valued clients, strategic partners, and colleagues. Highlights of this issue include:
Company News:
Funding Program Profile: We present a profile of the Youth Employment Strategy (YES) program designed to co-fund the hiring of youth for technical activities.
Industry News: CRA announces changes to the 2011 SR&ED T661 form
Best regards,
Jason Schwandt, Vice President, Business Development
COMPANY NEWS
EXPANSION OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING PROGRAM CAPACITY
TSI is pleased to announce the addition of Tracey Wills to our team. Tracey’s focus will be to add capacity to support the various government grant and loan programs available. Tracey has a strong business and sales background, and her expertise in business case development will provide a solid foundation for assisting our clients with their funding program applications.
TSI PARTNERS WITH JAVELIN TECHNOLOGIES TO RELEASE PDM SR&ED TIME TRACKING MODULE
As part of its ongoing partnership with Javelin Technologies (Canada’s largest reseller of SolidWorks 3D CAD software), TSI is pleased to announce that Javelin has released a SR&ED software time-tracking plug-in for its popular SolidWorks Enterprise PDM product data management software solution. In collaboration with TSI, Javelin has integrated tracking for all key eligible SR&ED activities, by person, by project. The system is user-friendly, and provides intuitive fields to enter information regarding key technical uncertainties, tests/experiments, and more. To view a short demo of the plug-in, click to
http://www.javelin-tech.com/blog/2010/11/sred-time-logging-with-solidworks-enterprise-pdm/
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM is a product data management (PDM) software solution that can be deployed in a fraction of the time required for other enterprise PDM systems. SolidWorks Enterprise PDM helps organizations to manage and share product data more effectively and automate workflow to allow better collaboration from engineering to sales and the shop floor, resulting in better products, lower costs, and faster time to market. It has specific functionality for multiple CAD file formats (including DWG) and can offer a variety of benefits to almost any file that can be stored in Windows Explorer. For more information on SolidWorks PDM product, click on http://solution.javelin-tech.com/l/2012/2010-08-02/2EZSN
FUNDING PROGRAM PROFILE: YOUTH EMPLOYMENT STRATEGY
Each quarter we profile a new funding program. This quarter, we present a summarized profile of the Youth Employment Strategy (YES) program. If you are considering hiring a technical resource, consider this program as a low-cost trial to evaluate the person prior to hiring as a full time employee.
Program name: Youth Employment Strategy (YES)
Description:
• The YES program assists small and mid-sized businesses to hire post-secondary (college or university) technical graduates to work on innovative projects including R&D and commercialization of technologies on an internship basis.
Eligibility Requirements:
• Incorporated companies operating in Canada with under 500 employees.
• Example eligible work projects are technical projects or non-technical (but technology-related) projects that may include R&D, engineering, multimedia, development of new products/processes, market analysis for a new technical product, business development related to technical activities, or improvement of customer services.
• Eligible graduates must be Canadian citizens (or permanent residents), be between 15-30 in age, have completed a post-secondary education, be a first-time participant in the program, not in receipt of EI benefits, and be legally entitled to work according to provincial legislation
Valuation:
• Funding up to $30K to cover a portion of the graduate’s salary for a 6 – 12 month internship term.
Submission Requirements:
• Proposal submission including company innovation plan, scope of work of the project, plan of work for the graduate, and summary of costs.
Application Acceptance Criteria:
• Discretionary, and subject to availability of funding
Please contact TSI for more information about this or other funding programs of interest.
INDUSTRY NEWS
CHANGES TO SR&ED T661 FORM FOR 2011
Based on cross-country consultations with various SR&ED stakeholders, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced in October upcoming changes to the November 2008 version of the T661 form. The changes will take effect in April 2011.
The key change is that the CRA has indefinitely extended the transitional measure that allowed claimants to submit project information in Part 2 of the form for only the 20 largest projects in dollar value. A new table (Part 6) has been added to gather cost information for all the claimed projects. This information is currently requested in Part 2 Section E of the form.
The new form will be mandatory for claims filed after July 31, 2011. In the event a claim is submitted after July 31, 2011 using the old version, the CRA will request the omitted information. If the claimant does not respond to the request within the specified time requested, the expenditures associated with the omitted information (i.e. expenditures associated to projects with a missing cost summary) may be disallowed due to insufficient information.
For further information on how the approaching changes to T661 Form will affect your claim, please contact TSI.
CONTACT US
For more information about any of the content in this newsletter, or to arrange a complimentary consultation, please contact Jason Schwandt, VP Business Development, at 905-738-6770 x2010 or via [email protected].
