What Does Forschungszulage Consulting Cost? 3 Fee Models

The short answer: three fee models, three ways of splitting the risk

There are essentially three ways to bill Forschungszulage consulting:

1. Hourly fees. You pay for time spent, regardless of the outcome.
2. Fixed price per application. You pay a flat fee, regardless of the outcome and regardless of the funding amount.
3. Success-based commission. You pay a share of the funding, and only if there is any.

So the pricing question is really a risk question. The Forschungszulage runs in two stages: first the certification body (Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage, BSFZ) reviews the technical eligibility of your project, then the tax office assesses the allowance as part of your tax return. Between signing the contract and receiving the money there are two authorities that can say no, or say "less". Which fee model you choose decides who carries that risk.

1. Hourly fees: when they work and when you pay twice

Hourly billing is the classic model in funding consulting. It is transparent in the sense that you can see what time is spent on. And it has a legitimate use case: a tightly scoped second opinion, a review of an application you wrote yourself, a single question about how to draw the line between routine work and R&D.

It becomes a problem as soon as the consultant owns the whole application. Three effects then reinforce each other:

• You pay even if it is rejected. The fee is tied to effort, not to the decision.
• Every iteration costs extra. BSFZ queries, a revision, a second attempt: all new hours.
• Even a hopeless project is a paid engagement. A consultant paid by the hour has no economic reason to talk you out of a weak application early.

The last point is the most expensive one, because it never shows up on an invoice. It shows up in the decision.

2. Fixed price per application: the incentive problem

A fixed price feels predictable, and it is. It just makes the wrong thing predictable. With the Forschungszulage, the difference between a good and a mediocre application is rarely whether it gets through: it is how much funding it unlocks. Are all eligible projects actually identified, including those from earlier years? Are employees cleanly assigned by percentage? Are contractors and external development partners claimed correctly?

That work takes time, and a fixed price does not reward it. Quite the opposite: the faster the provider is done, the more profitable the engagement. The incentive points at the smallest possible effort, not at your largest possible result. An application covering one project is cheaper to produce than one covering four fiscal years and six projects, and it earns the provider the same money.

How strongly the assessment base drives the funding amount is something you can work through in the guide to calculating the Forschungszulage. That is where the leverage sits, not in the form.

3. Success-based: what the commission actually refers to

"Success-based" sounds unambiguous. It isn't. "Success" can refer to three very different amounts:

1. The assessment base. These are the eligible expenses, essentially your R&D personnel costs. The Forschungszulage itself is 25% of that, or 35% for SMEs. A commission on the assessment base therefore refers to a figure that is a multiple of what reaches you.
2. The certified sum. The BSFZ certifies that projects are eligible. What the tax office then actually recognizes can differ, because costs can be reduced.
3. The funding actually paid out. The amount that ends up in your account or is offset against your tax liability.

The same percentage means a completely different amount depending on the reference. If you compare two success-based offers without knowing the reference amount, you are comparing nothing. Ask for it in writing, in one sentence, in the contract.

The second thing to watch: what counts as success when only part of the application goes through? With several projects across several years, partial certification is the norm, not the exception. A clean contract states that the commission applies to the part actually funded, not to what was originally claimed.

Which types of provider exist on the market, and which compensation model typically goes with which type, is broken down in our overview of Forschungszulage provider types.

The hidden cost block: your team's time

The fee is only one part of the bill. The other is internal hours, and they appear in no proposal.

The BSFZ reviewers are engineers and computer scientists. An application convinces them only if it is technically concrete: state of the art, specific technical target values, comprehensible uncertainties. That knowledge sits with exactly the people in your company who have the least time. If a consultant cannot follow you technically, the work shifts back to your CTO: first as explanation loops, then as correction loops on the draft.

Two questions make this block visible before you sign:

• How many hours of my team's time do you plan for in total, and for which roles?
• Who writes the technical project descriptions, you or us?

With us, your team's effort is under five hours, spread across four calls. We run the interviews, draft the technical descriptions as proposals and file the application; you review.

Due when: BSFZ certificate or payout?

This is the clause that moves the most money and gets read the least.

The BSFZ certificate is neither a payout nor a final decision on your funding amount. It establishes that your project is eligible. Only after that does your tax advisor claim the allowance in the tax return, and only the tax office decides on the costs. Reductions can happen at that point, for instance if cost assignments or supporting evidence do not hold up.

So if a fee falls due with the certificate, it can be based on a sum you never actually receive in that amount. Conversely, a provider who ties the due date to the payout has a direct interest in a cost breakdown that holds up at the tax office, not just at the BSFZ.

The same logic applies to rejections. In the BSFZ procedure a rejection is not the end: you can improve and resubmit a revised project, which makes it all the more important to settle this question in the contract. What to do in that situation is covered in Forschungszulage rejected: how to respond. Clarify in advance whether revisions and a resubmission are included in the price or count as a new engagement.

Five questions to ask any provider before you sign

1. What exactly does your fee refer to? Assessment base, certified sum or funding paid out, in writing.
2. When does it fall due? On signing, on filing, on certification, or only after the tax office pays out.
3. What happens on a rejection or partial rejection? Do I pay pro rata, not at all, or for the effort spent? Are revisions and a resubmission included?
4. Who writes the technical project descriptions, and how many internal hours will that cost me? Ask for roles and hours, not for a gut feeling.
5. What is your success rate and how do you measure it? Per project or per application, over what period, with which references.

The fifth question is worth asking because the baseline is known: industry-wide, the BSFZ rejects around 25% of projects. Across the applications we support, the success rate is over 92%. That difference does not come from tricks but from the technical drafting, written the way the BSFZ reviewers assess it.

How we bill, and how you get your number

We work 100% success-based. In concrete terms:

• The commission refers to the funding actually paid out, not to the assessment base and not to the certified sum.
• It only falls due once the money has reached you, not with the BSFZ certificate.
• If the application is rejected, you pay nothing, not even for work already done.
• The whole path is included: identifying eligible projects, claiming costs in full, writing the technical descriptions, filing with the BSFZ, and preparing the figures so your tax advisor can claim them directly in the tax return. We stay available until the payout.
• Your internal effort: under five hours across four calls.

That has a consequence which matters more to you than any percentage: we only earn on approved applications. So we will tell you honestly if an application is not worth it for you, rather than taking on an engagement that predictably will not hold. What is covered in detail is on the page about our Forschungszulage consulting.

Which leaves the number you actually came for. We will tell you directly, with no proposal process and no documents required. Book a first call: 15 minutes, and within the first five of them you will know how we bill and whether an application is worth it for you at all.