There’s a great multi-part series running now in the National Post called “A Walk Across Toronto” by Peter Kuitenbrouwer.  In these articles, Peter looks at effects of the recession on different neighborhoods in Toronto.

It’s no secret that there’s a lot more “For Lease” signs and vacant sites around Toronto than there were five years ago.  Lots of layoffs, especially if your top customer is Nortel or GM or Magna.  This is the time for business owners to get back to basics and manage smartly.  Focus on sales and the customer.  Manage your expenses and cash flows wisely.  Are there things that you could do differently? Better?

The favorite part of my job is meeting owners and managers and getting a personal guided tour of their plant or shop.  It’s great insight and I’m learning from the absolute expert, the person who has focused on the business and its market segment for the last 5, 10, 20 or in some cases 30+ years.

At the end of my plant tour, I often am able to tell the owner that he qualifies for a government SR&ED tax credit cheque. I’ll then give him a figure of $XX,000 that I’m confident I can recover based on his last two years’ operations. 

Regularly, I get the line back from the owner, "Nothing's changed.....I don't qualify for R&D tax credits".  It’s puzzling.  I acknowledge that the gentleman I’m talking to is the unquestioned expert in his business.  But, I must say, he knows lttle to nothing about SR&ED.

If I tell you that you have a valid SR&ED claim, and that you have money coming back from the feds and the Ontario govt, that’s how it is.  That’s MY area of unquestioned expertise.  G6 doesn’t bill you a cent until you get your government cheques in full. 

Dale Carnegie tells us: “The sure-thing ship seldom gets far from the dock”.  Applying for SR&ED tax incentives is the closest thing we have to a sure thing in Canada for improving your business posture.

My strong suspicion is that a lot of the “For Lease” signs and vacant sites featured in “A Walk Across Toronto”  at some point told someone like me "Nothing's changed.....I don't qualify for R&D tax credits". 

Don’t be part of that unfortunate group.  Give me a call and let’s arrange for you to give me a plant tour!

To your success!  Greg Hills  416-704-3879