After you apply

After the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)’s film services unit receives your claim, it will conduct a risk assessment and may select the claim for audit.

If you send a copy of the Part A or Part B certificate instead of the original, you must keep the original document for your records. We may request the original document if your claim is audited. You must keep your Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) certificates, tax slips, documents and records relating to your income tax return for at least six years.

Respond promptly to the CRA's questions and provide any additional information requested.

Service standards

The CRA aims to review T2 returns that include this tax credit within:

• 60 calendar days from the date that we receive a complete claim, when no audit is done
• 120 calendar days from the date that we receive a complete claim, when an audit is done

The CRA’s target is to meet these service standards at least 90% of the time.

If you make multiple federal and/or provincial tax credit claims, all claims must be considered complete before the CRA service standards apply. Find out what a complete claim is.

With the Check CRA Processing Times tool, you can quickly find out when you can expect us to complete your request or get back to you. To use the tool, select the relevant information from the drop-down menus, and it will display a target time for your request to be done or the length of time we expect it will take, based on our service standards.

If your claim gets selected for an audit

If we select your claim for an audit, we will ask you to provide documents to support your claim. To avoid delays in processing your claim, provide the requested information as quickly as possible.

The CRA may ask for the following documents:

• books, records and other supporting documents of your corporation
• financing and distribution agreements
• agreements with cast and crew
• the minute book of the qualified corporation and any related corporations
• any other documents to support your claim

Audit scope

The CRA usually limits its audit of a film tax credit to a given year. However, we may expand an audit to other years or review other items that are included in the corporation’s T2 return. We will send you a letter to tell you when the audit has been completed.

Additional review of the film tax credit claim

We may review a film tax credit claim that was previously audited, or accepted as filed if:

• there is new information that affects the amount of assistance
• you request a reassessment for this claim
• you request another film or media tax credit for the same production
• the CAVCO certificate is revoked
• we identify fraud or facts that were misrepresented

We may also select your corporation's T2 return for audit as part of our regular audit program. In this case, your film tax credits will not be re-audited unless one of the above-mentioned situations applies.

Objecting to an unfavourable outcome

We will generally reconsider a tax assessment if you file an objection for one of the following reasons:

• you are not satisfied with our explanation of your assessment
• your request for an adjustment has been denied
• there is a dispute over interpretation of the law

The Appeals Division will do an impartial review of the file. If you are still unsatisfied with the decision on your objection, you can file an appeal with the Tax Court of Canada.