Apply for the Forschungszulage: your R&D tax credit, done for you.
We run the whole claim end to end, from certification to the tax-office payout, on a success-based fee. You keep building; we handle the paperwork.
Germany's statutory tax credit for R&D
Introduced in 2020 and expanded three times since, the Research Allowance (Forschungszulage, §3 FZulG) has grown into one of Germany's largest funding instruments for innovation, research and development.
Its purpose is to strengthen Germany as a place to innovate by rewarding the development work companies already do. Access is deliberately broad and the effort is kept manageable, so that small and medium-sized businesses can benefit just as much as large corporations.
Each expansion has widened that reach further, raising the eligible base and the amounts companies can claim. How much it pays and exactly who qualifies is further down. All rates and caps since 2020 are in the Forschungszulage guide.
Four reasons the Research Allowance is worth claiming
Once your project meets the eligibility criteria, the allowance is a legal entitlement rather than a competition: the question is no longer whether you might be selected, but how much you can claim. Four things make it stand out.
Of eligible R&D cost
Internal personnel and contract research are reimbursed at 25–42% depending on company size and project start, including a 20% overhead flat rate.
Maximum per year
The annual cap lets even large R&D teams claim a meaningful share of their development spend, paid out as cash.
Retroactive claims
You can still file for projects back to 2022. Whether a year is still open follows its assessment period — we check that year by year before you put work into it.
Upfront fee
Our fee is success-based: you pay only after the allowance is paid out. No win, no fee, no risk to your cash flow.
What's funded, and who qualifies
The Forschungszulage rewards systematic work to create something new and technically uncertain. If your project is novel, planned and carries real development risk, the costs below are eligible, and most taxable German companies qualify. The full Forschungszulage requirements are in the guide.
What's covered
Eligible cost categories under §3 FZulG. Each is reimbursed at your applicable rate.
Gross salaries of employees working on the R&D project. For projects started after 1 January 2026, a 20% overhead flat rate is added on top. The largest cost block for most teams.
60% of invoices from external partners count as eligible cost, reimbursed at your rate. Useful when you outsource part of the development.
Founders and sole proprietors can claim their own R&D hours at a fixed hourly rate, capped per year.
Joint development with universities or other companies qualifies, with each partner claiming their own share.
Costs back to 2022 remain claimable. See what changed for the relevant deadlines.
Who qualifies
There is no industry restriction and no company-size limit. The bar is the project, not the sector.
Any company or sole proprietor liable for tax in Germany, regardless of legal form, can claim.
Startups, Mittelstand and large enterprises all qualify; size only affects your reimbursement rate.
Software, MedTech, cleantech, engineering, biotech and more, what matters is genuine R&D, not the field.
The company must not be classed as an undertaking in difficulty under EU state-aid rules at the time of claim.
Routine work does not qualify. The project must aim at something genuinely new with an uncertain outcome.
Free funding analysis 🚀
30 minutes, no obligation. You'll leave the call knowing where you stand.
- If your project can be funded
- A first estimate of the amount
- The main hurdles to expect
Success-based, so our interests are aligned
How to tell a good Forschungszulage adviser
Four questions separate the field. Does the fee depend on the result, or is it due regardless? Who writes the technical part of the BSFZ application — the adviser or you? Is the assessment base derived from your actual payroll records, or estimated? And is the adviser still there when the tax office asks follow-up questions, which happens more often than the marketing suggests.
We assess eligibility, prepare the BSFZ certification and the tax-office claim at our own risk.
The allowance is paid out to you by the tax office before any fee is due.
Our fee is a percentage of the funding secured, full service, audit-proof documentation included.
There is no upfront cost and no risk. We invoice only after the allowance has actually been paid out to you, if nothing is approved, you owe nothing.
Get a personalised R&D funding assessment
3 min · no documents · no obligation.
Looks promising! Book a 30-min call and we'll pin down your exact figure.
nowWhat the allowance looks like by team size
Indicative annual allowance by R&D team size. These are per-year figures, so a sustained team claiming across several years reaches a multiple of the amounts shown.
One to three developers on an R&D project for the year. Fits early startups and focused product teams.
A 5–15 person R&D function. The most common BeFunded client; average payout across our clients is around €380k.
Larger R&D organisations approaching the annual cap. Multi-project portfolios filed together.
Research allowance application: from first call to payout
Four steps. You stay focused on the work; we handle the funding end to end, on a success-based fee.
Claiming the Forschungszulage retroactively
The claim is not limited to the current year: the Forschungszulage can be claimed retroactively for up to four years. The FZulG sets no deadline of its own — the assessment period under section 169(2) no. 2 AO applies. When it starts to run is governed by section 170(2) sentence 1 no. 1 AO: only at the end of the year in which the return was filed, and at the latest at the end of the third calendar year following the one in which the tax arose. At the outside that is three plus four, so seven years — which is why a blanket expiry date misleads.
Eligibility pre-check
We review your projects against the three BSFZ criteria, novelty, technical risk and method, and quantify a realistic claim. Free and with no obligation.
≈ 1 week · freeApplication preparation
We translate your work into the technical dossier the BSFZ expects, with the project description, state of the art, approach and risks written to certification standard.
≈ 3–4 weeks · a few hours from youSubmission & approval
We file the BSFZ application in your name and manage the process through to the binding certificate that confirms your project as eligible R&D.
BSFZ decision ≈ 3 monthsAnnual documentation
Each following year we capture the eligible costs, working time and evidence for your ongoing R&D, keeping everything structured and audit-ready.
≈ 2 weeksAnnual payout
We file the claim again for each year you keep developing, so the research allowance becomes a reliable, recurring source of funding.
≈ 2–3 months (depends on the tax office)Founder-led, and on your side
We started BeFunded after navigating Germany's funding maze for the companies we built before, and seeing how much gets left on the table. So we created the team we wished we'd had: technical founders who know the application from their own experience and guide you from first idea to payout, founder to founder.
your BeFunded teamIndividual approach
Technical argumentation written for your projects, never a template.
Maximised claim
We know exactly what qualifies and how to frame it, so you claim the full amount, not the safe minimum.
End-to-end
From the first eligibility check to filing and cash payout.
Audit-proof
Clean, complete documentation that holds up to every review, no surprises later.
Where the Research Allowance applies
The allowance is open to every field doing genuine development. Here is how it tends to land in the sectors we work in most. What counts as R&D in detail is covered in the Forschungszulage guide.
R&D we've turned into cash
A snapshot of Research Allowance claims we've secured. Some named, some anonymised, across software, energy, deep tech and industry.
Millions in allowance from in-house work alone, with zero contract research.
Read the story
A full rejection overturned on appeal, with a high contract-research share recognised.
Read the story
Three projects, one funding strategy, with the production boundary drawn cleanly.
Read the story
Two projects, an eligible base near €8 million, the allowance into the millions.
Read the story
Mechanics, control and biology funded as one interdisciplinary R&D project.
Read the story
Two projects certified, one rejected: a clear lesson in what actually qualifies.
Read the storyHow the Research Allowance keeps growing
The program has been upgraded repeatedly since it launched, each time widening what you can claim. Here is how it has evolved, and the deadlines that matter now. The full overview of funding rates is in the guide.
The Research Allowance (FZulG) takes effect as a permanent, non-competitive tax incentive.
- 25% on eligible R&D personnel cost
- €1m annual cap
- Paid as cash, even in loss years
The biggest upgrade so far, widening both the rate and the eligible base.
- SMEs reach up to 35%
- Sole-proprietor & owner hours at €70/hour
- Investments & depreciation become eligible
- Annual cap raised towards €4.2m
A second improvement broadens what counts and lifts the limits again.
- Wider eligible-cost base
- Higher valuation for owner hours
- Larger annual claims possible
Depends on the assessment period of the year in question.
- Deadline differs by year
- Older years close first — we check which are open
Why BeFunded exists
Two founders, one mission: help every innovator in Europe fund what they build.
Our mission
To make public funding genuinely accessible to everyone building something new in Europe. Across research and development, health, agriculture, energy and far beyond, billions are set aside each year to back innovation, yet too much of it never reaches the teams doing the actual work. We want to change that, so that funding lands where it belongs and keeps innovation in Europe moving forward.
From founder to founder: we have been on the client side ourselves, navigating Europe’s funding programs first-hand, and we learned how much complexity, paperwork and uncertainty stands between a good project and the money meant to support it.
Research Allowance questions, answered
The most common questions on eligibility, amounts, timing and the claim itself. Short answer first, detail after.
Last updated: July 2026
In two stages: the BSFZ certifies your project as genuine R&D, then you claim the credit with Anlage FZ in your tax return. We prepare both steps, including audit-ready documentation.
A research allowance consultant at BeFunded costs nothing upfront: the fee is success-based, a percentage of the funding due only after payout. If nothing is approved, you pay nothing.
The research allowance is paid as cash, even if your company makes a loss. Under §3 FZulG it reimburses 25–42% of eligible R&D costs, mainly personnel, for every qualifying company.
The research allowance is worth up to €4.2m per year, depending on your eligible R&D spend and your 25–42% rate. Across our clients the average payout is around €380k.
Yes, the research allowance can be claimed retroactively back to 2022. Whether a past year is still open depends on its assessment period, and therefore on when the return for that year was filed — there is no blanket expiry date. Only one thing is certain: older years close first.
The research allowance covers internal R&D personnel plus a 20% overhead rate, 70% of contract-research invoices, fixed-rate sole-proprietor and owner hours, and cooperation projects. Routine work is excluded.
Every industry can qualify for the research allowance: software, MedTech, cleantech, engineering, biotech and more. What counts is whether your project is novel, plannable and carries genuine technical risk.
BeFunded's fee is success-based: 10% on funding up to €500k per year and 5% above that, invoiced only after the allowance is paid out. No approval, no fee.
The research allowance application takes roughly 1 week for eligibility, 4 weeks for the BSFZ application and about 12 weeks for certification. Cash arrives 2–8 weeks after the annual claim.
A research allowance claim takes about 6–12 hours of your team's time. BeFunded writes the documentation and handles the BSFZ and tax office; you only provide the technical substance.
What Founders Say About Our Innovation Funding Consulting
They turned our browser-based simulation work into a fundable application, and stayed persistent all the way to approval.
A great application for our AI research, approved in record time, with refreshingly down-to-earth advice.
Prepared clearly despite the bureaucracy, and the full amount was paid out.
Professional and smooth from start to finish, they guided us through the whole process.
Ask us anything
Tell us about your project and we'll assess your case by hand. No prep, no obligation. Prefer to talk?