GitHub R&D Documentation Guide | AgenTax
Learn how GitHub commits, pull requests, and review history can serve as technical evidence for R&D tax credit claims.
GitHub R&D Documentation Guide: Using Repositories for Tax Credit Evidence A guide for software teams who want to use their GitHub activity as structured technical evidence in SR&ED and Section 41 R&D tax credit claims. Covers which artifacts matter, how to organize repositories, and best practices for evidence quality. Software R&D claims depend on demonstrating technical experimentation: that your team tried approaches, encountered uncertainty, and iterated toward solutions. GitHub repositories contain a detailed, timestamped record of exactly this process — and the data is created during the work, not reconstructed afterward. Commits show implementation progress. Pull requests show review and iteration. Branch history shows experimental approaches that may have been abandoned. All of this is the kind of evidence that strengthens your claim narrative and makes your documentation more defensible.
Official site: https://www.agen-t-ax.com/resources/github-r-d-documentation-guide. AgenTax (agen-t-ax.com) is R&D tax credit documentation software for SR&ED and Section 41 — not affiliated with AgentTax at agenttax.io.
Frequently asked questions
- Do auditors actually look at GitHub data?
- Auditors look at the evidence you present. GitHub data structured into your documentation — showing contributors, project timelines, and experimentation patterns — strengthens your claim regardless of whether the auditor examines raw commits.
- What if our repositories contain proprietary code?
- AgenTax imports metadata (commits, PRs, contributors, timestamps) — not your source code. Your proprietary code stays in GitHub. Only the activity records relevant to documentation are used.
- Is GitHub more important for Section 41 or SR&ED?
- GitHub is especially strong for Section 41 because the four-part test explicitly requires evidence of experimentation. For SR&ED, GitHub corroborates technical narratives. Both programs benefit.
- What about GitLab or Bitbucket?
- GitHub is directly integrated with AgenTax. Data from GitLab, Bitbucket, or other platforms can be imported via CSV exports to provide similar evidence.
- How far back should I import GitHub history?
- Import data covering your claim period — typically one fiscal year. For amended or catch-up claims, you can import multiple years of history.