How do you apply for WBSO, and when?

According to RVO, a company applies online through its application portal, always before the R&D work starts. It can apply until the last day of any month, for a period that starts on the first day of the next month and runs to 31 December. It needs eHerkenning level 3 to log in, and a clear technical description of each project.

This guide is for a founder whose company has, or will soon have, a Dutch entity with engineers on its own payroll. It follows one WBSO application from preparation to the report that closes the year. Whether a foreign-owned company can apply at all is covered in WBSO for foreign-owned companies.

WBSO is the Dutch tax credit for R&D, run by RVO, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. An approved application brings an S&O-verklaring, an R&D declaration: the document that lowers the company's payroll tax.

What do you need before you apply?

A Dutch company registered as an employer, a login with eHerkenning level 3, and a plan for each R&D project. For each project, RVO wants to know what you will develop, which technical problem stands in the way, which solutions you will try, and how many hours and costs you expect until 31 December.

Three items need attention early:

• eHerkenning level 3. This is the Dutch business login. RVO warns that delivery takes a number of weeks. An intermediary who files for you also needs a ketenmachtiging, a mandate that lets it act for your company.
• The technical description. The portal allows a limited number of characters, and RVO asks for the technology, not the business case. Its offline project form, a PDF, can be filled in with the engineer who will do the work and imported later.
• A choice about costs. You choose between a fixed amount per R&D hour and your actual costs and expenses. The choice in your first application of the year applies to every application that year.

Source: RVO, Handleiding WBSO 2026, sections 2.1 and 2.2

How do you submit the application?

Online, in RVO's application portal. You log in with eHerkenning and start a new WBSO application, and the portal fills in the company's registered name, payroll tax number and address. You then add your projects, choose how costs are counted, answer the questions for each project and, where needed, report the citizen service numbers of your R&D staff.

That last step feeds the hourly R&D wage, which RVO calculates from the pay of people who did R&D for the company two years earlier. A company without an R&D declaration two years ago, the usual case for a new Dutch subsidiary, gets a fixed hourly wage and skips the step.

RVO only assesses a complete application. A company short of time can file a vormvrije aanvraag, a free-form application, and complete it later. If it does not go ahead, it withdraws it; otherwise it counts towards the maximum of four applications a year.

A company can file itself or use an intermediary, but it stays responsible for the application either way. RVO sends every message through the portal, with an email alert.

Source: RVO, Handleiding WBSO 2026, sections 2.2 and 2.4

When should you apply?

According to RVO, always before the work starts, and at the latest on the last day of a month. The period then starts on the first day of the next month and runs to 31 December. It covers at least 3 months and at most 12, and a payroll employer can file at most four applications per calendar year.

Two dates follow from that:

• To use WBSO from 1 January, apply by 20 December.
• For work in October, November and December, apply by 30 September, because a period covers at least three months.

The first application of the year covers every project up to 31 December. A further one is needed only for a new project, a changed project, more hours or costs than approved, or a project that runs into the next year.

Timing also decides which work counts. If a project is already under way when the company first applies, RVO only looks at the work in the phase it applies for. Work done before that is left out.

Sources:
RVO, Handleiding WBSO 2026, sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 3.1
Business.gov.nl, Dutch R&D tax credit scheme (WBSO)

How long does RVO take to decide?

RVO's legal time limit is 3 months from the start of the application period when a company chooses the fixed amount per hour, and 3 months plus 8 weeks when it chooses actual costs and expenses. For a complete first application from a starter, RVO aims to decide within 1 month.

When RVO asks questions, the time limit is extended by the time the company takes to answer. An incomplete application gets one chance to be completed; after that, RVO does not handle it.

The decision is a beschikking, a formal decision, placed in the portal. RVO can approve the application, fully or in part, with an R&D declaration that lists the approved projects and hours. It can also reject it, or not handle it. A company that disagrees can object within 6 weeks of the date the decision was sent.

Source: RVO, Handleiding WBSO 2026, sections 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4

What happens after RVO approves?

The company uses the R&D declaration in its payroll tax returns and pays less payroll tax from the start date on the declaration. According to RVO, it keeps R&D records during the year and, by 31 March of the next year, reports the hours actually worked, plus its actual costs and expenses if it chose those.

• Payroll tax. The company decides how much of the reduction to use in each return. It can never use more than the total on the declaration, and it never pays less than zero payroll tax.
• Records. Hours per person, per project and per day, updated within 10 working days. Project records, such as test results, drawings and version history, updated within 2 months after each quarter. Everything is kept for 7 years.
• The realisation report. In Dutch, the mededeling van de realisatie. A late report brings a fine. No report at all means RVO sets the hours worked at zero and also imposes a fine.
• Corrections. Fewer hours than approved means a correction, paid back through the payroll tax return. RVO also checks companies afterwards, on site or remotely.

Source: RVO, Handleiding WBSO 2026, chapters 4 to 7

Where the application fits in a move to Europe

For a new Dutch company, the WBSO month follows the payroll month. The entity comes first, see how to set up a Dutch BV from abroad. Then the registration as an employer, see how a foreign company runs payroll in the Netherlands. Then eHerkenning, and only then the application. What the credit is worth is explained in what WBSO is worth in 2026.

Sources

1. RVO, Handleiding WBSO 2026 (PDF, in Dutch), checked 11 September 2026
2. Business.gov.nl, Dutch R&D tax credit scheme (WBSO), checked 11 September 2026

Checked on 11 September 2026. This page is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Rules change: check the official source, or ask an adviser, before you act on it.