For tech startups taxed in Germany
Germany pays back 25% of your R&D payroll — 35% for SMEs on work since 28 March 2024
The Forschungszulage is a legal right, not a competition: certified R&D projects get the allowance from the tax office, paid out even when you make no profit. The hard part is the project description for the BSFZ — in German, in research language, in 4,000 characters. You tell us about your projects in English; we write the German from your own words and back it with dated evidence from your commits and tickets. You submit it yourself.
R&D done in 2022 can be claimed only until 31 December 2026
The tax office accepts a year's claim until four years after the year ends (§ 169 AO, as the BSFZ explains it). The BSFZ certificate comes first and can take up to three months. Relief for late claims exists only for 2020 and 2021; for later years it is still being worked on. If 2022 matters to you, talk to your Steuerberater about it now.
What it costs
€0 until the BSFZ certificate
Then €1,500 when the certificate is issued, and 10% of the allowance once the tax office sets it. If the BSFZ refuses, you pay nothing. The BSFZ certificate itself is free.
Estimate your allowance
Enter, per year, what you paid for the time your people spent on R&D: gross pay plus the employer's social contributions, only the R&D share. This is arithmetic on the law's rates and caps — not a calculation of your claim, which is your Steuerberater's work.
How it works
- Assessment call. Which projects could qualify, which years are open, who on your team knows the work.
- You describe, in English. Your projects in your own words, question by question as the BSFZ form asks them; your people by role, their pay and their time on each project. Optionally, an export of your commits or Jira tickets: we turn it into a dated list of evidence per project.
- We write the German. Every number and every name in the German must be one you wrote — our code refuses anything else — and a person reads every field before you see it.
- You submit. Through your own BSFZ portal account with your ELSTER certificate, which you never give to us. With the certificate, your Steuerberater files the claim at the tax office.
What the BSFZ form asks, and what we draft
- Project title — up to 200 characters
- Goal, challenge and knowledge gap — up to 1,500 characters
- How it differs from the state of the art — up to 500 characters
- The work done to close the gap — up to 1,000 characters
- Scientific or technical uncertainties — up to 1,000 characters
- The work plan: work packages, MM.YYYY to MM.YYYY, person-months
- The people and the cost per year, by the BSFZ's staff categories
The BSFZ assesses German text only and three criteria: novelty, technical risk, systematic planning. Every rule we use is quoted on the sources page.
Auf Deutsch
Die Forschungszulage beträgt 25 % der förderfähigen FuE-Personalkosten, für KMU 35 % für Tätigkeiten nach dem 27. März 2024 (§ 4 FZulG). Wir erstellen aus Ihren Angaben die fachliche Vorhabenbeschreibung für die Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage (BSFZ) auf Deutsch, mit Arbeitsplan und Belegen aus Commits und Tickets. Den Antrag bei der BSFZ stellen Sie selbst mit Ihrem ELSTER-Organisationszertifikat; den Antrag beim Finanzamt übernimmt Ihr Steuerberater. Wir leisten keine Steuer- oder Rechtsberatung. Honorar: 0 € bis zur Bescheinigung, dann 1.500,00 € und 10 % der festgesetzten Forschungszulage.
What we are not
We are not tax advisers (Steuerberater) and not lawyers: this is not tax advice and not legal advice. We prepare the technical project description for the BSFZ. What counts as an eligible cost and the claim at the tax office are for your Steuerberater. We never submit anything for you and never ask for your ELSTER certificate. Nobody can promise that the BSFZ will certify a project — only the BSFZ decides.
How your data is handled: privacy notice / Datenschutzerklärung. The engagement in full: terms.