Companies that carry out R+D+i activities can apply a bonus on Social Security contributions due to common contingencies with respect to research staff hired on the payroll. Thanks to this incentive, companies can reduce their fixed personnel costs.

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Summary of Research Staff Bonuses before the new regulations

• They suppose a 40% savings on the common contingency fee of your technical workers in Social Security.
• They apply to all R+D+i staff that you have within the company with a dedication of more than 85% of your time to R+D+i activities.
• You can apply at the time the company decides.- For less than 10 R+D+i workers, it is not necessary to certify, so it will be enough for the company to justify the process on its own, through a technical report and time control. At least 10 R+D+i workers must be certified by means of a Binding Motivated Report, for which the company must undergo an audit of the project, including interviews with the personnel to be rewarded, etc.

Until now, the bonus per person was 40% and you could start applying it at any time, but with the entry into force of the new regulations starting in September 2023, this incentive will undergo several changes.

What changes do the new 2023 Research Staff Bonuses regulations entail?

• You can't start rewarding technical workers at any time. You can only start applying the bonus in the time of hiring or with the change of contract to indefinite. ‍
• The Research Staff Bonus can only be applied for a maximum of 3 years per person. ‍
• The hiring of young researchers, meaning those hired persons who are under 30 years of age, and the hiring of women researchers will give, respectively, the right to a additional bonus of 5 percent, these being cumulative, where appropriate, with each other.
• It will be admitted that up to 15% of the time spent on training, teaching, outreach or similar, count as exclusive dedication to R&D or IT activities.

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Some explanatory notes are still pending in this regard, but one of the most significant changes involves the beginning of the application of the incentive, which can no longer be applied at any time, only at the time of hiring or with the change of contract to indefinite. In this sense, all those companies that apply this incentive before the entry into force of the new regulations will still be governed by the previous one, so it is interesting to accelerate as much as possible the application of this incentive in companies that are not yet taking advantage of it.

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‍From Intelectium we specialize in public funding for startups and SMEs and, in particular, in the application of this incentive. We can help you analyze the fit of this incentive with your company so that you can start saving directly and monthly part of your fixed expenditure on technical salaries. You can contact us via email: comunicacion@intelecitum.com or through our contact form.