Secure the Forschungszulage: Quick & Predictable

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What is the Forschungszulage (Short & Simple)?

What is the Forschungszulage

The Forschungszulage is a tax-based funding scheme for innovative projects in Germany. The most important advantage: statutory legal entitlement – it does not depend on whether budgets are "exhausted".

Practically relevant for many companies:

• up to 4 years retroactively
• no dilution of company shares
• attractive for startups, KMU, and mid-sized companies

For getting started on zeitmaker.com, these are particularly helpful: Requirements, Calculation, and Application.

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Which Innovation Projects Are Eligible for the Forschungszulage?

Which innovation projects

Not only "lab topics" are funded. Projects that are close to the market are often eligible – as long as a technical uncertainty is being resolved and the development proceeds systematically.

The technical uncertainty is explained here: Can I get public funding for my software project?.

Typical fields:

• Industrial AI (e.g. real-time analytics in production lines)
• B2B SaaS (e.g. new platform architectures, data-driven models)
• FinTech (e.g. low-latency systems, synchronization logic)
• Manufacturing / Hardware Tech (e.g. new 3D printing processes, sensor technology)
• HealthTech, GovTech, Developer Tools, Privacy Tech

For orientation, you can also find example projects on zeitmaker.com.

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Why zeitmaker.com is the Fastest Path for Many Companies

zeitmaker.com is not positioned as pure consulting, but as end-to-end support through to payout – including assistance with time records and documentation logic.

End-to-end support through to payout Documentation logic

What counts most often:

• Time commitment: instead of 4 weeks, often only approx. 4 calls (reference: 4–8 hours in calls through to submission)
• Success & output: 92% success rate, avg. €300,000 average funding in the last period, 25% more funding through better allocation/attribution
• Verifiable results: €8M+ in Forschungszulage secured, 35+ clients
• Fees: 100% success-based (reduces risk and creates clear incentives)

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A Common Misconception: "If It's Part of the Project, It's Eligible"

Common misconception

"Part of the project" is not enough. What is eligible is primarily work that directly contributes to resolving a technical uncertainty, e.g.:

• Development, tests, prototyping, simulation, technical validation, iterations

Typically not eligible:

• Marketing
• pure project management (status updates, budget tracking, reporting)

Important: Roles are often called "project lead" but contain real technical work (architecture, experiment design, technical decisions). In that case, a clean delineation of the technical portions is worthwhile – with the appropriate documentation.

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Next Steps

1. Check requirements
2. Use example projects for a rough initial assessment
3. Then go through Calculation and Application – or get direct support

Internal blog links: zeitmaker.com → Requirements, Calculation, Application, Example Projects.

Official bodies (for reference, not "tip pages"):

• BSFZ (Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage)
• Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF)
• Responsible tax office if applicable (tax implementation)

BSFZ: What is the Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage (BSFZ)?

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