Administration

1. WBSO documentation

It should become clear from the project administration what research and development activities have been conducted. Also, the time spent on these by the involved employees should be made evident. Make sure to keep up your WBSO administration as soon as you start your project, even if you have not yet received an R&D declaration.

The WBSO documentation should contain the hours administration and project documentation. If you have applied for compensation of costs and expenses, these should be documented as well.

1.1. Hours administration

Organisations are required to register all R&D hours. In short this means that all R&D hours should be registered per employee, per day, per project.

Make sure that the hours administration matched with the leave and illness administration. We at Ugoo can provide you with a template for keeping administration, if desired. The hours administration for software developers can easily be integrated with a time registration system.

1.2 Project documentation

The project documentation should shed light on the following:

• The nature and aim of the R&D activities

• The progress of the R&D activities with regards to the goal, phase and time schedule

Please note that a WBSO project administration is does not entail the entire project administration. It is a separate document which solely envelops WBSO eligible activities. This WBSO project administration can consist of various (digital) documents, such as meeting documents, reports, drawings, correspondence, photos of prototypes, test results, measurement reports, caulculations, etc.

The WBSO project administration for software developers usually consists mainly out of the version control system. It is important that the logged activities can easily be contributed to WBSO. The logs should be dated, and shine light on which individual is responsible for the produced software code.

1.3 Costs and expenses administration

If you also applied for WBSO subsidy to reimburse your costs and expenses, these need to be documented as well. The cost and expenses administration should clearly state what costs and expenses were made for the R&D activities of each project. It is advised you save as many documents as possible, such as quotations, order confirmations, invoices, contracts, receipts, notes, etc. Furthermore, it is important that all these documents contain a date.

1.4. Documents to keep

The following documents need to be kept by WBSO recipients:

• R&D hours and project documentation

• WBSO costs and expenses (if applied for)

• Copies of the WBSO application(s) and R&D declaration(s)

• Notices regarding a correction of R&D hours, R&D declaration revision(s) and correction statement(s)

All of these documents may be kept digitally. The retention time of these documents is at least 7 years. Make sure that the realised R&D hours are always documented within 10 days.

2. Audits

The RVO carries out random checks with organisations that receive WBSO. R&D activities are checked based on the mandatory WBSO administration during these checks. We advise to get in touch with us as soon as possible when a control is announced. We will support you throughout the entire process. You can read more about this by clicking the button below.

3. Notification obligation

Organisations are obliged to digitally report both the realised R&D hours, costs and expenses to the RVO, within 3 months after the calendar year has ended. You have to do this for each R&D declaration of that year. If you've realised fewer R&D hours, costs than budgeted, a proportional revision of the R&D subsidy will be made. In case you've already received the entire subsidy amount, you have to pay back the difference to the RVO. If you fail to fulfil the notification obligation, you're at risk of receiving a fine. We at Ugoo can take care of your notification obligation, so you'll be ensured that all requirements are fulfilled.

4. R&D declaration received? Time to benefit from WBSO!

You can settle the WBSO benefits with the tax authoroties in the payroll tax declaration or income tax declaration, after you have received your R&D declaration. The WBSO benefits are deducted from the income tax on a monthly basis, or every 4 weeks. Since 2022, the total subsidy amount can be distributed as desired. You can for example choose to deduct it all at once. In the past the total subsidy amount had to be distributed equally amongst all declaration periods. Your WBSO approval states how exactly this should be done.

If you still have some R&D rebate left after the WBSO approval period, you can settle the remaining amount through a correction notification. This can be done within the declaration periods of the approval period in which you have paid payroll taxes. If there is still some rebate left after you have done this, you can settle the remainder in declaration periods within the same calendar year, out side of the approval period.