WBSO & R&D Tax Credits: A Developer's Guide

If you work in software development in the Netherlands, chances are your company benefits from WBSO -- or should be. The WBSO (Wet Bevordering Speur- en Ontwikkelingswerk) is a Dutch tax credit program that reduces payroll taxes for companies performing qualifying research and development. For developers, understanding what counts and how to document it can make the difference between a smooth audit and a painful one.

What Is WBSO?

WBSO is a government incentive designed to make R&D more affordable. Companies that perform technical research or develop new products, processes, or software can apply for a reduction in their wage tax obligations. The credit is substantial -- it can save thousands of euros per developer per year. The program is administered by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), and applications must be submitted before the work begins.

For software companies, WBSO typically covers activities like developing new algorithms, building novel architectures, creating prototypes, and solving technical challenges that go beyond routine development. The key criterion is technical novelty: you must be doing something that is new to your organization and involves overcoming technical uncertainty.

Which Activities Qualify?

Not all development work qualifies for WBSO. Routine maintenance, bug fixes for known issues, and standard configuration work are excluded. What does qualify includes developing new functionality that requires technical research, building systems with architectures that are new to your company, creating tools or libraries that solve problems in novel ways, and conducting experiments to determine feasibility of technical approaches.

The gray area is where most disputes arise. Refactoring a system to use a new architecture pattern could qualify if it involves genuine technical uncertainty. Adding a feature using well-established patterns typically does not. When in doubt, ask yourself: did we have to research and experiment to figure out how to do this, or did we already know the approach?

Documentation Requirements

This is where many companies fall short. WBSO requires you to maintain a project administration that includes a description of the R&D activities planned, records of hours spent on qualifying activities per employee, and documentation of the technical challenges encountered and solutions found. The hours must be logged contemporaneously -- reconstructing records after the fact is not acceptable.

Each time entry should clearly link to a WBSO project and describe the technical work performed. Entries like "development" or "coding" are insufficient. Auditors want to see what specific technical challenge you were working on, what approach you took, and what you learned. Think of your time entries as a technical diary that tells the story of your R&D journey.

How Logged Helps with WBSO Compliance

Logged was originally built with WBSO compliance in mind. The platform enforces the documentation habits that auditors expect from day one. Projects can be tagged as R&D, time entries require meaningful descriptions, and the approval workflow creates the accountability trail that auditors look for.

The AI-generated reports are particularly valuable for WBSO. At the end of each month, Logged analyzes your team's time entries and generates structured project reports covering research activities, technical issues encountered, results achieved, and current progress. These reports align with what RVO expects to see during an audit, saving hours of manual report writing while improving consistency and completeness.

Tips for Developers

As a developer, you play a crucial role in your company's WBSO compliance. Log your hours daily -- do not wait until Friday to fill in the week. Write descriptions that explain the technical challenge, not just the task. Mention what you tried, what worked, and what did not. If you spent time researching an approach before implementing it, log that research time separately.

Think of WBSO documentation as a technical journal. Future you -- and your auditors -- will thank you for the detail. And remember, the effort you put into documentation directly translates into tax savings for your company, which often funds the continued investment in R&D that makes your work possible.