Quebec CDAE to CDAE-IA Transition

Reduce uncertainty and maximize your CDAE-IA claim. Is your advisor even familiar with it?

Quebec’s 2026 CDAE-IA rule changes tightened eligibility, shifted to an expenditure-based model, and changed how Investissement Québec certification interacts with your claim. Most advisors are not across any of them. Boast’s Quebec team is.

Boast’s CDAE-IA Transition Readiness Review helps Quebec SaaS and AI companies assess project eligibility under the 2026 CDAE-IA rules, close documentation gaps, and plan their claim with an advisor who has deep expertise in the program.

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Why Quebec companies are switching advisors in 2026

We recently helped secure $1M in ITCs for a Quebec-based AI company that had previously been working with a large national firm. Why did they switch? Their previous advisor had never heard of CDAE and didn’t have the required human expertise.

Quebec companies that develop or deploy AI are entitled to claim CDAE-IA. The program has specific eligibility rules, a 75% time threshold, an Investissement Québec certification requirement, and documentation standards that differ materially from SR&ED. Missing any of these leaves money unclaimed — or creates audit exposure on prior years.

Boast has recovered over $900M in R&D tax credits for more than 2,000 companies across North America. Our Quebec team knows CDAE-IA specifically: the 2026 rule changes, the certification process, and what Revenue Québec scrutinizes during review.

If your current advisor has never mentioned CDAE-IA, that gap has a dollar value.

What Boast’s CDAE-IA Transition Readiness Review is designed to resolve

What we hear from Quebec SaaS and AI teams vs what the Transition Readiness Review does about it

We do not know what still qualifies.

Unclear qualification language creates hesitation across finance, tax, and delivery teams. The Transition Readiness Review translates CDAE-IA’s qualification language into a project-by-project verdict your whole team can act on.

Our revenue mix may create issues.

Hybrid service, implementation, and product models are harder to self-assess with confidence. The Transition Readiness Review runs your actual revenue mix against CDAE-IA’s tests. An expert answer instead of a self-assessment.

We cannot afford a funding surprise.

A late qualification setback can ripple into planning, forecast accuracy, and stakeholder confidence. The Transition Readiness Review surfaces qualification risks months before filing so your forecast holds and your stakeholders aren’t surprised.

We do not have time for a manual process.

Teams need a lower-lift way to review projects, documentation, and employee scope. The Transition Readiness Review is built to be low-lift: our platform pulls from tools you already use, so your team’s involvement is measured in hours, not weeks.

Why teams engage Boast for CDAE-IA

Two of our most recent Quebec clients came to Boast after their previous advisors — including a top national accounting firm — had no familiarity with CDAE-IA. In both cases, the gap was discovered during a sales conversation, not an audit. That is the better way to find it.

What Boast’s Quebec team brings to CDAE-IA specifically:

  • Direct knowledge of the 2026 CDAE-IA rule changes — the expenditure-based shift, the 75% time threshold, and the updated Investissement Québec certification requirements
  • Understanding of what Revenue Québec scrutinizes during review and how to structure documentation that holds up
  • Experience working with Quebec SaaS and AI companies that also claim SR&ED, so the two programs are coordinated correctly rather than treated as the same claim
  • A track record of $900M+ recovered for 2,000+ companies across North America

What changed from CDAE to CDAE-IA in 2026

The 2026 transition introduced material changes to eligibility, documentation requirements, and how the credit interacts with other programs. Here is what your tax credit strategy needs to account for:

Dimension CDAE (Pre-2026) CDAE-IA (2026)
Eligibility model Activity-based: qualifying AI activities determined eligibility Expenditure-based: eligible costs tied to qualifying expenditures, not just activities
Time threshold Less prescriptive thresholds 75% of an employee’s time must be in qualifying AI-related work for that resource to be claimed
Investissement Québec certification Required, with established process Tightened requirements; the interaction between IQ certification and the credit has changed materially
Qualifying expenditure categories Narrower scope of eligible costs Expanded categories — but only with proper documentation aligned to the new model
Documentation standard Activity records tied to qualifying work Expenditure records linked to eligible categories; documentation requirements are more specific and subject to closer Revenue Québec scrutiny

What your team leaves with after Boast’s CDAE-IA Transition Readiness Review

  • A clear picture of which projects qualify under the 2026 CDAE-IA rules and which do not
  • A documentation gap analysis identifying what Revenue Québec would flag in a review
  • A plain-language walkthrough of the 2026 rule changes as they apply to your specific business
  • A 2026 claim readiness score with specific action items to close gaps before filing
  • Access to Boast’s Quebec team for follow-on questions after the review

CDAE-IA FAQ

No. Many teams evaluating CDAE-IA sit in implementation, integration, modernization, or hybrid delivery models. The right question is whether the work can be mapped and supported properly.

A simple overview of your delivery model, the types of projects you are trying to assess, and any current concerns around employee scope, documentation, or 2026 planning.

No, the Transition Readiness Review is about certainty as much as size. Maximization matters, but most companies tell us the bigger problem heading into 2026 is that they can’t plan around a number they don’t trust.

Here’s what clarity looks like in practice: a 40-person Québec SaaS company comes out of their review knowing that two of their three product teams already meet the AI-integration bar, the third needs documentation changes in place by Q3 to qualify, and their data-hosting revenue (which disqualified them under old CDAE rules) is now eligible. Their CFO can budget the 2026 claim as a forecast, not a hope, and their engineering lead knows exactly which workflow changes matter and which don’t.

That’s the outcome we’re after: A defensible number you can plan around, and a short list of specific actions to protect it.

Where relevant, we look at CDAE-IA in the context of your broader incentive strategy so your team can plan with a clearer view of risk and overlap.

Most reviews are completed shortly after your discovery call, and we’ve designed it to demand very little of your team, typically [5-10 hours] of total involvement. Our platform integrates with the tools you already use, like Jira and GitHub, to pull most of what we need automatically; your team isn’t rebuilding documentation by hand or sitting through weeks of consultant interviews. If you’re working against a fiscal year-end or certification deadline, tell us on the discovery call and we’ll scope the timeline around it.

That is exactly why a more structured review matters. Mixed models often need clearer project, employee, and documentation mapping before internal decisions can be made confidently.

Three things, in order. First, we send a short, specific list of what we need, which typically includes read-only access or exports from your project management and payroll systems, which most teams turn around in under an hour. Second, our Québec-based specialists review your projects, team structure, and revenue mix against CDAE-IA’s requirements, including the AI-integration threshold and the 75% rule. Third, you receive your readiness assessment: Where you stand on eligibility, what your claim opportunity looks like (including SR&ED and CRIC stacking), and a prioritized list of actions to take before filing.

There’s no obligation attached to the assessment; it’s yours either way. If you choose to move forward with Boast, the work done during the review carries directly into your claim, so nothing is repeated.