WBSO Grants: Get government support and save money hiring developers in the Netherlands

Building a great team can be expensive, particularly in the field of engineering where seasoned developers with over 8 years of experience can earn upwards of 58k per year.

But before you whip out your bank statements and start questioning the financial viability of your business, know that the Dutch government regularly supports local organizations and offers various grants and incentives to companies in the tech sector.

One of those is the WBSO grant, i.e the Dutch Government’s Act for the Stimulation of Research and Development.

What is the WBSO?

The WBSO is essentially a Research and Development (R&D) tax credit that allows eligible companies to pay lower wage tax and lower national insurance contributions. It’s delivered by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and is intended to provide entrepreneurs with an incentive to invest in research.

Why should you apply for the WBSO?

With the WBSO, you can benefit from lower wage costs and reduce the cost of other R&D expenditures, such as the purchasing of research equipment or prototypes. With regards to the actual savings the WBSO promises, the WBSO manual 2018 states that “the deduction amounts to 32% of the first €350,000 of the total underlying R&D cost and 14% of the remaining costs.” The savings are even more substantial for startups, for whom the tax deduction can amount to 40%.

Are you eligible for the WBSO grant?

In a nutshell, the WBSO is intended for Dutch companies (registered at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce) that employ people responsible for Research & Development projects.
In order to be eligible for the WBSO grant, the following conditions must also be met:

• The proposed R&D activities have to actually take place in your own company
• The technological development you’re embarking on is new to your organization
• The development is accompanied by technical problems
• You’ve yet to start working on the R&D project (as the WBSO application needs to be submitted in advance)

You can find more information about the conditions of eligibility on the official website of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.

Apply for the WBSO!

Unsure whether or not you meet the requirements? It only takes a few minutes to do a WBSO scan! Need help during the WBSO application process? Get in touch with our friends at WBSO Software. They regularly handle all sorts of grant applications, including the WBSO, and boast a 99% success rate! Plus, if you’re a Honeypot client, you’ll even get a 10% discount on their service fee ;)

Still got questions about the WBSO, local tax schemes and the Dutch business climate? Don’t hesitate to drop us a line at [email protected] or check out the webinar below!