ACERTA is working on the certification of the R&D&I nature of the projects submitted to the different aid programs within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PERTE's):
The projects will be evaluated by qualifying the activities individually, justifying such qualifications in accordance with the definitions of the concepts of R&D&I included in Article 35 of the revised text of the Corporate Income Tax Law (Royal Legislative Decree 4/2004, of March 5 and its subsequent amendments and Law 27/2014, of November 27), but always particularizing them to the novelty of the project (not limited to the mere transcription of the definitions of the Law).
Research is the original planned inquiry aimed at discovering new knowledge and superior understanding in science and technology, and development is the application of the results of research or any other type of scientific knowledge.
For projects related to computer science, it also includes the "creation, combination, configuration of advanced software, by means of new theorems and algorithms or operating systems, languages, interfaces and applications aimed at the development of new or substantially improved products or services."
The projects will be evaluated by qualifying the activities individually, justifying such qualifications in accordance with the definitions of the concepts of R&D&I included in Article 35 of the revised text of the Corporate Income Tax Law (Royal Legislative Decree 4/2004, of March 5 and its subsequent amendments and Law 27/2014, of November 27), but always particularizing them to the novelty of the project (not limited to the mere transcription of the definitions of the Law).
Activity whose result is a technological advance in obtaining:
- New products or production processes or substantial improvements to existing ones. New products or processes whose characteristics or applications, from a technological point of view, differ substantially from those existing previously, will be considered new.
- Materialization of the new products or processes in a plan, scheme or design,
- Creation of a first non-marketable prototype
- Initial demonstration projects or projects including those related to animation and video games and textile, footwear, tanning, leather goods, toys, furniture and wood samples, provided that they cannot be converted or used for industrial applications or commercial exploitation.
- Technological diagnosis activities aimed at the identification, definition and orientation of advanced technological solutions carried out by entities*, regardless of the results.
On the ACERTA website there is a link to request the ACERTA Certification Guide. In this guide you will find the content that must be included in the report according to RD 1432/2003.
The average certification time for an R&D&I project in the market is usually about 8 weeks. At ACERTA we are aware of the importance of optimizing certification deadlines and we are constantly working to achieve this. Currently our average time is 55 days.
Those customers who, for whatever reason, need a shorter term adapted to their needs, can contact us for an evaluation of the case.
By obtaining a certificate in R&D&I, the company will be able to apply tax deductions with security before the tax authorities and request the collection of the tax credit if the corporate income tax is less than the deduction. According to the RD 1432/2003, a company can deduct important amounts of the Corporate Tax from the investments or expenses made in R&D&i. The deduction percentages vary between 12% and 42%, according to the qualification applied to the project, depending on the type of activity carried out (Research and Development or Technological Innovation).
The aim is to obtain legal certainty when applying the important tax deductions existing in the Spanish legal system.
They have economic effects comparable to those of a subsidy, but are not taxed.
The application is free (all types of areas of knowledge and volumes of expenditure), and general (for all companies, regardless of their CNAE or size).
Deductions are not subject to competitive concurrence with a predefined budget; they are generated by each company, when they carry out R&D and/or iT activities, in accordance with the definitions established in the Corporate Income Tax Law.
The generation of the tax deduction is proportional to the R&D&I activities carried out, and is applied in the annual corporate income tax settlement, up to a certain limit of quota. However, the deduction generated but not applied can be applied in subsequent years, and there is even a case of monetary advance of the deduction pending application.
It consists of the application of a rebate of between 40% and 50% in the employer's contributions to the Social Security contributions for common contingencies with respect to personnel exclusively dedicated to R&D&I activities.
Exclusive dedication is understood to mean personnel who dedicate all of their working time to R&D&I activities, with up to 15% of the time dedicated to training, teaching, dissemination or similar tasks.
For those persons hired before 01/09/2023 those established in RD 475/2014:
For those hired after this date, those established in RD-Law 01/2023:
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
