If your IT company builds software that is technically new, you can use the WBSO. This is a tax scheme for research and development work, in Dutch S&O. With staff you pay less payroll tax on the hours your developers spend on that work. If you are self-employed, you get an extra deduction in income tax.
If you have a private limited company (bv), the profit from that software can then fall into the innovation box. On it you pay an effective 9% corporate income tax. Both schemes only work if you apply in advance and keep good records of your hours.
In short
- In 2026 the WBSO gives a 36% discount on the first € 391,020 of the R&D base, 50% for starters, and 16% above that. Self-employed people get € 15,979 R&D deduction, starters € 7,996 extra.
- Software counts if the work is technically new for your business and you expect technical problems that you have to solve yourself. You apply in advance and record hours per day, per project and per employee.
- With the R&D declaration from the WBSO a smaller bv can put the profit from that software in the innovation box, at an effective rate of 9%. The plans for 2027 are only final after the Senate votes.
In this article
- What does the WBSO deliver for an IT company?
- When does software development count as R&D?
- How do you calculate what you get back?
- What do you get as a self-employed developer?
- How and when do you apply for the WBSO?
- Which records do you need to keep?
- What does the innovation box add on top?
- What changes in 2027?
What does the WBSO deliver for an IT company?
With staff you get back 36% of the first € 391,020 of the R&D base in 2026 through lower payroll tax. If you are a starter, it is 50%. On the part above € 391,020 you get 16% (RVO, WBSO).
The R&D base is the amount the discount applies to. It is mainly the wage costs of the hours your people spend on the development work. You process the benefit in your payroll tax return, or as a self-employed person in your income tax return (RVO, WBSO).
36%
discount on the first € 391,020 of the base
50%
for starters, in the same first bracket
16%
on the base above € 391,020
Whether the scheme also leads to more research has been studied well. A study of Dutch firms from 1996 to 2004 found indications that the WBSO makes firms invest more in research and development. Only for small firms could it be ruled out that the scheme merely replaces their own spending (Lokshin & Mohnen, 2012). You can read more about that research in Does the WBSO really work for innovation?
When does software development count as R&D?
If the work is technically new for your business and you expect technical problems that you have to solve yourself. RVO puts it like this: software is eligible, and the development must be technically new for your business. The work must go beyond your own technical knowledge and skills (RVO, WBSO conditions).
As a result it is uncertain whether the development will succeed. If there is no risk or uncertainty, RVO says it is not R&D. You must also already have an idea of how you want to solve the problems, and you describe those possible solutions in the application (RVO, WBSO conditions).
For an IT company this is the difference between building and developing. Building a web shop or an integration with known tools and known methods is skilled work, but usually not R&D. Devising your own technique for a problem whose solution you do not yet know can be. Think of a new way to process large amounts of data quickly, or software that solves a technical problem on which existing packages get stuck. In the application, describe which technical problem you expect, not which features the customer gets.
Only hours from yourself and from people on your payroll count. Hired labour does not count, so neither does the freelance developer or the agency worker. The costs of outsourced research do not count either, unless you have chosen actual costs and expenses. Then you may include the costs of work outsourced to third parties (RVO, WBSO conditions).
How do you calculate what you get back?
You multiply the R&D hours by the R&D hourly wage. You add the actual costs and expenses to that, or a fixed amount per hour. On that total you get the percentage of the bracket (RVO, your tax benefit).
The fixed amount for costs and expenses is € 10 per R&D hour for the first 1,800 hours and € 4 per hour above that. If you did not use the WBSO 2 years earlier, RVO uses a fixed R&D hourly wage of € 29 in 2026 (RVO, your tax benefit).
RVO gives its own example. A starter with staff who spend 500 hours on R&D, at an hourly wage of € 29. The wage costs are 500 times € 29, so € 14,500. The fixed amount is 500 times € 10, so € 5,000. The base is € 19,500, and 50% of that is € 9,750 benefit (RVO, your tax benefit).
A second example, now for a software company that is not a starter. Two developers together spend 2,000 hours on a technically new project. The wage costs are 2,000 times € 29, so € 58,000. The fixed amount is 1,800 times € 10 plus 200 times € 4, together € 18,800. The base is € 76,800, and 36% of that is € 27,648 less payroll tax. If your real hourly wage is higher, RVO uses your own wage data if you did have the WBSO 2 years earlier.
What do you get as a self-employed developer?
A fixed extra deduction in income tax. In 2026 the R&D deduction for self-employed people is € 15,979, and starters get € 7,996 on top (RVO, WBSO). This deduction lowers your profit, not the tax itself directly.
You must work at least 1,225 hours a calendar year for your business and make at least 500 R&D hours (RVO, WBSO conditions). You can count as a starter for at most 3 years, within the first 5 years that you are an entrepreneur for income tax (RVO, your tax benefit).
For a freelance developer who mainly works hours for clients, those 500 hours are the threshold. Work you do for a client and that the client pays for is usually not your own R&D. The deduction mainly suits those who build their own product alongside client work.
How and when do you apply for the WBSO?
Always in advance, at RVO, with eHerkenning of at least level 3. You can only apply for the WBSO for R&D work that has yet to start. Applications for 2027 can be submitted from mid-November 2026 (RVO, WBSO).
In 2026 the following applied. With staff you applied up to and including the last day of a month, and the period started on the first day of the following month. For a start on 1 January 2026 the deadline was 20 December 2025. As a self-employed person the period started on the day of your application (RVO, WBSO calendar). The calendar for 2027 has not yet been published, so check the RVO website before you apply.
After the end of the year, with staff, you report your realised R&D hours. For the hours of 2025 that was no later than 31 March 2026. A self-employed person only does this if they achieved fewer than 500 R&D hours (RVO, WBSO calendar).
Which records do you need to keep?
Time records and project records. In the time records you distinguish per day, per project and per employee, and you update them at least every 10 working days (RVO, keeping R&D records). Start as soon as the project starts, even if the application is still pending.
In the project records you record what you did, how the work went in substance and how it progressed. You put a date and the author's name on each document, and you summarise progress regularly. You keep everything for 7 years (RVO, keeping R&D records).
For a software team much of that evidence already exists. Commits, tickets and notes on technical choices show who worked on which problem and when. Link them to the projects in your application, so that during an audit you can quickly show where the hours went. Hours of someone who was sick or on leave that day do not belong in them.
What does the innovation box add on top?
A lower rate on the profit from your own software. All profit from innovative activities for which RVO has issued an R&D declaration falls into this box. The effective corporate income tax rate there is 9% (Belastingdienst, innovation box). The innovation box is in the corporate income tax act and is therefore for a bv, not for a sole proprietorship (Corporate Income Tax Act 1969, article 12b).
The R&D declaration you get with the WBSO is also the entry ticket for the innovation box (RVO, WBSO 2027 changes). For a smaller taxpayer that declaration is enough. You are one if the benefits from your innovations plus their costs stay below € 37,500,000 together over 5 years, and your turnover over 5 years below € 250,000,000. Larger companies also need, for example, a patent, or an asset in the form of software (Corporate Income Tax Act 1969, article 12ba).
There is a threshold. The benefits must first exceed the development costs you have already deducted. A loss on innovation does not fall under the low rate, you deduct it at the normal rate (Belastingdienst, innovation box).
For a small software company it is hard to determine exactly which part of the profit comes from the innovation. That is why you may choose a fixed amount: 25% of the profit before the innovation box, up to a maximum of € 25,000. You can do this in the year in which you create the asset and in the 2 years after (Belastingdienst, choosing a fixed amount).
If you are unsure whether a bv suits you, also read Converting a sole proprietorship into a bv: when does it pay off.
What changes in 2027?
According to the 2027 Tax Plan the percentages stay the same, and the higher limit of the first bracket also stays. The fixed R&D hourly wage goes from € 29 to € 33. The fixed arrangement in the innovation box for SMEs is being widened (RVO, WBSO 2027 changes).
These are still proposals. They are only final once the Senate has approved them. The coalition agreement also mentions a broader WBSO for AI and software, but what it will look like is still being studied (RVO, WBSO 2027 changes). How much the fixed amount in the innovation box will be widened is not yet known.
Sources
- RVO, WBSO, accessed 31 October 2026. rvo.nl
- RVO, WBSO: conditions, accessed 31 October 2026. rvo.nl
- RVO, WBSO: your tax benefit, accessed 31 October 2026. rvo.nl
- RVO, WBSO: calendar, version for 2026, accessed 31 October 2026. rvo.nl
- RVO, WBSO: keeping R&D records, accessed 31 October 2026. rvo.nl
- RVO, WBSO 2027 changes, accessed 31 October 2026. rvo.nl
- Belastingdienst, Innovation box, accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Innovation box: choosing a fixed amount, accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Corporate Income Tax Act 1969, articles 12b and 12ba, version in force from 1 January 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Lokshin, B. & Mohnen, P. (2012). How effective are level-based R&D tax credits? Evidence from the Netherlands. Applied Economics, 44(12), 1527-1538. doi.org