Forschungszulage Rejected? What You Can Do Now

Why This Article Matters

Many companies plan the Forschungszulage as a fixed component of their innovation financing. It is therefore all the more important to understand what a negative notice actually means – and which next steps can now save time, liquidity, and stress. Because: rejections happen, often not because of the idea itself, but because it was not presented clearly enough within the logic of the review criteria.

Brief Overview: How the Forschungszulage Works (Two-Stage Process)

The Forschungszulage follows a two-stage process:

1. BSFZ (Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage): Checks whether your project meets the substantive criteria. Only with a positive certificate can you proceed.
2. Tax office: Determines the eligible costs and sets the allowance (potentially paid out/credited).

Official entry point for the BSFZ (portal/information): bescheinigung-forschungszulage.de

What Does "Rejected" Actually Mean?

Important: a rejection is not a permanent exclusion. It refers to the specific project as submitted. You can therefore continue to submit applications – for other projects or a revised version.

Nevertheless, a rejection often has noticeable consequences:

• Loss of time due to revision/objection and renewed review
• Liquidity burden, because planned funding is initially unavailable and project costs must be borne independently
• Planning risk for follow-up or sub-projects

How Common Are Rejections?

Rejections for the Forschungszulage are not an exception: according to a BMBF letter dated 24.06.2024, the BSFZ rejection rates (per project) were 24% (2020), 21.08% (2021), 26.22% (2022), and 25.46% (2023). For 2024, a record high of 28.89% (as of end of May) is cited; across all years the average is 25.45%.

Important: this rate is not a "stop sign" for innovation – it shows above all how decisive clear technical argumentation, clean structure, and complete documentation are.

With professional support the chances improve significantly: with a consultancy like zeitmaker.com, the probability of success is over 92% (rather than under 75% in the market average) – and at the same time, more eligible costs can often be clearly justified, so that the innovation budget is better utilised.

Step 1: Request for Additional Information or a Real Rejection?

Before you react: read the feedback carefully, because the deadlines differ significantly.

• Request for additional information: The BSFZ requires additional information/documents within a deadline (a short deadline of only 14 days is frequently reported). This is often a signal that the project has fundamental potential – but you need to respond quickly and sharpen the submission.
• Rejection: The BSFZ concludes that the project (as submitted) does not meet the requirements. Here you have one month for a formal objection.

Common Reasons Why the BSFZ Rejects

In practice, failures are often due to presentation and structure, not necessarily the degree of innovation itself. Typical issues:

• Criteria not clearly worked out: The key factors are
  • Novelty (distinguishing from the state of the art),
  • technical uncertainty/risk (technical uncertainty, not market/business risk),
  • systematic approach (methodical procedure, work and time planning).
• Too little technical depth / misleading description: Innovative claims are asserted but not concretely substantiated or not comprehensibly structured.
• Insufficient documentation: Missing or contradictory information on work packages, schedules, and responsibilities.
• Costs not clearly allocable: Expenditures cannot be cleanly attributed to the project; plausibility is lacking.
• Formal/substantive imprecisions: Implausible time expenditures, contradictions, unclear terminology.

What Can You Do After a Rejection? (2 Options)

Option A: File an Objection (Within One Month)

An objection can make sense if you believe that:

• a misunderstanding occurred,
• information was missing,
• the presentation was not clear enough, even though the project meets the criteria.

Important: the objection should specifically address the reasons for rejection – with clear technical additions and supporting evidence. Make sure to observe the deadline of one month from the date the notice is received.

Option B: Revise and Resubmit

If there are fundamental structural or presentation problems, a new application is often the faster, cleaner route. In practice, it can also help to:

• define the project more clearly or structure it into sub-projects,
• work out the technical uncertainties and procedural logic more precisely,
• prepare the documentation so that it appears consistent and plausible.

What Happens If the Tax Office – Not the BSFZ – Is the Obstacle?

Even with a positive BSFZ certificate, problems can arise in the second step: the tax office can reduce or reject if costs are not cleanly documented or are incorrectly allocated. Especially for retrospective applications, complete, traceable cost and time documentation is crucial.

Why Professional Support Pays Off

A rejection almost always costs more than just time: it ties up internal resources, delays liquidity, and forces renewed preparation. This is exactly where a specialised partner makes the difference – because with the Forschungszulage it is strongly about formulating innovation in an "audit-ready" way: technical, structured, and aligned with the criteria.

At zeitmaker.com we support companies with precisely this – with clear structure, technical rigour, and an eye for what the review practice typically expects. This demonstrably reduces the likelihood of a rejection and at the same time helps to identify eligible costs cleanly, so that you make the most of the Forschungszulage's possibilities. If you would like, speak directly with Erich Lehmann and the team to assess your notice and determine the next steps: zeitmaker.com.