Application for research allowance fully digital as of today

As of January 11, 2021, the application process at the Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage (BSFZ) will change. The application will be converted to a fully electronic procedure with digital signature. The entire application and certification process will now be handled via the BSFZ‘s own web portal.

What will change for companies?

With the changeover to the fully digital application and certification procedure, companies authenticate themselves to the certification office using so-called “ELSTER certificates”.

With the ELSTER certificates, companies simply and securely confirm their identity to the BSFZ. The company identity data is transferred from the respective company tax account.

The use of an ELSTER certificate is required for company authentication as part of the application and certification process.

What is the Research allowance?

The tax-free research allowance serves to strengthen Germany as a business location. Thus, on November 29, 2019, the Federal Council approved the Act on Tax Subsidies for Research and Development (Research Subsidy Act – FZulG), on the basis of which annual subsidies for research and development activities will be possible from 2020.

The law was extended with the economic stimulus package of June 4, 2020. The subsidy rate will be granted retroactively to the beginning of 2020 and limited until the end of 2025 on an assessment basis of up to 4 million euros per company per year.

Thus, the assessment threshold has been doubled! This means savings of up to 1 million euros per year for you!

Contact our R&D tax allowance experts now to learn more!