The Netherlands is becoming one of the major quantum hubs in Europe. We’d like to explain why the Dutch tax framework makes the Netherlands a strong choice for expanding quantum companies.We cover different Dutch tax themes that matter most for quantum companies: international tax efficient corporate structure, R&D tax credits for IP profits [WBSO & the Innovation Box], the 30%-ruling for international talent. Each section explains the mechanic, why it is relevant for quantum specifically.
Key Takeaways
The key takeaways of our tax case for the Netherlands as Quantum Hub:
- The Dutch wage tax credit [WBSO] supports quantum companies during their long runway: The WBSO reduces R&D costs and provides cash flow benefits during the pre-revenue phase if R&D-activities are performed by employees in the Netherlands.
- The Innovation Box significantly reduces tax on success: When IP generates profitable income, the Innovation Box lowers the effective tax rate from 25.8% to 9%, which has a meaningful impact on company valuation and enhancing your investor case.
- 30% ruling enhances changes of hiring across the globe:The 30% ruling makes the Netherlands more attractive and cost-effective for hiring highly skilled international talent.
- The Netherlands is a great country to further expand internationally and ideal for your investors:
the participation exemption and the vast tax treaty network allows profits from subsidiaries to flow through the corporate structure without an additional tax hit, supporting international scalability. The investors can benefit from the vast tax treaty network and the exemption in the dividend withholding tax. Netherlands-located companies can agree on tax treatment with Dutch authorities upfront, reducing uncertainty before making significant investments.
Entangled: Many Reasons Why The Netherlands And Quantum Are A Good Fit
We understand that quantum technology is no longer a science experiment. Global investment in quantum technology startups reached $12.6 billion in 2025, more than six times the year before. Quantum computing companies crossed $1 billion in global revenue for the first time that same year, a figure McKinsey expects could reach $4.4 billion by 2028. The broader economic value the technology could unlock across chemicals, financial services, pharmaceuticals, and logistics runs as high as $2.7 trillion by 2035. The race is real, the capital is moving, and the question for quantum companies is not whether to establish a serious operational base in Europe, but where.
The Netherlands has a strong answer to that question. Backed by over €615 million from the Dutch National Growth Fund and a further €264 million from the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund, Quantum Delta NL has built what the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) describes as a full quantum value chain: world-class researchers, startups, investors, and advanced manufacturers operating across five linked innovation hubs in Delft, Leiden, Twente, Amsterdam, and Eindhoven. The sector already employs over 4,000 professionals and contributes approximately €500 million annually to Dutch GDP.
The House of Quantum in Delft, the world’s first national quantum campus, is already home not only to Dutch startups but to international companies establishing their European foothold close to the talent and infrastructure the Dutch ecosystem has built. Want to have more information about non-tax reasons why the Netherlands is a quantum hub? Please see more information on the website of the NFIA.
The Netherlands has built something real in quantum, and we think the tax side of that story deserves more attention. The Dutch tax system fits the way a quantum business works: it supports the R&D years, rewards the IP when it pays off, and helps with the international talent you need to get there.
Why Quantum Companies Have a Deeptech Profile
We understand that quantum companies typically have a long runway. Sometimes a decade or more before generating meaningful commercial revenue. The business is almost entirely focussed on R&D. A quantum company’s assets are patents, algorithms, cryogenic know-how, and quantum software. The workforce consists of quantum enthusiasts and is small, highly specialized. We see that most of the employees are recruited internationally. And when the IP eventually becomes commercially valuable, whether through a licensing deal with a financial institution, a government contract, or a breakthrough hardware product, the economic returns can be dramatic.
This profile, pre-revenue, IP-intensive, internationally mobile talent, long horizon, is exactly what the Dutch tax incentive landscape was designed for. Here is how to capture it.
The ‘WBSO’ [R&D Deduction] Incentive: Reduce Burnrate for more Cash During the Development Phase (and Beyond)
‘WBSO’ [ a Dutch acronym for Wet Bevordering Speur- en Ontwikkelingswerk or R&D Encouragement Act] is probably the most immediately valuable Dutch tax tool for a company in the research phase. Given that many quantum companies are still in the development phase, they make good candidates for the WBSO.
If your employees are doing qualifying R&D in the Netherlands, the applicable wage tax and social security contributions are reduced. This is not a deduction from taxable profit. It is a direct reduction of the wage tax liability, which means it generates a cash benefit from day one, regardless of whether the company is profitable yet.
In 2026, the rates are 36% on the first €391,020 of eligible R&D costs, and 16% on anything above that. Startups qualify for a more generous rate of 50% on the initial bracket. Applications go through the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and must be submitted before the R&D work begins.
For a quantum company whose largest cost is typically a small team of highly paid experimental physicists and engineers, this directly extends runway. The primary cost line in quantum R&D is human: specialized, expensive people doing work that takes years to bear commercial fruit. The WBSO lowers the after-tax cost of keeping those people employed and focused on the science, reducing cmpany cashout without impacting employee net earnings.
The Innovation Box: Entering the Profit Phase
The WBSO is usually the ‘bait’, as it is the entry ticket to the ‘big fish’; the Innovation Box. Both incentives work work alongside each other as a pincher. So: a company can benefit from the WBSO from the R&D phase on, and apply the Innovation Box which has a material impact as soon as qualifying IP starts generating profit – and potentially before as it reduces calculatory tax rates in a business valuation process. Why? Standard Dutch corporate income tax runs at 19% on profits up to €200,000 and 25.8% above that. Under the Innovation Box, profits from qualifying IP in the Netherlands are taxed at an effective rate of 9%. This box ‘fills up first’ with the agreed on profit allocation %, after which the 19% and 25,8% brackets fill. For a quantum company with valuable IP, the gap between 9% and 25,8% is structurally significant aand wower tax costs could enhance your valuation and therefore your investor case, which is purpose-designed to unskew investor biases and encourage risky R&D investments. Some more background to the valuation angle:
To qualify for the innovation box, the IP must be self-developed by the company in the Netherlands. Also IP that was initially self-developed outside the Netherlands could qualify for the innovation box if the R&D-activities are taken place in the Netherlands. The amount of profit that falls under the 9% rate is not fixed: it is determined through a functional analysis of the company, which establishes what share of revenues is attributable to the qualifying IP.
For most quantum companies, R&D is central to everything the business does and so the qualifying percentage could be meaningful. A quantum company that has been conducting qualifying R&D in the Netherlands is well positioned to access the Innovation Box once that IP starts generating returns. Given the long R&D horizon and concentrated IP value that characterizes most quantum companies, both incentives are likely to be relevant across a significant part of the company’s lifecycle. For a deeper look at how the WBSO works and how to leverage it alongside the Innovation Box, see our article on Dutch tax incentives for innovation.
Attracting Global Talent: The 30%-Ruling
We understand that finding the right quantum talent is one of the hardest parts of growing. The global pool of quantum enthusiasts is small. For most quantum companies that want to scale up, getting new colleagues from across the globe is inevitable.
The 30%-ruling is the Dutch tax facility designed for exactly this situation. Qualifying employees recruited from outside the Netherlands may receive up to 30% of their gross salary as a tax-free allowance for a period of up to five years. The main conditions are that the employee was living more than 150 kilometres from the Dutch border before taking the role, and that their salary meets the applicable minimum threshold.
In practice, the 30%-ruling makes the Netherlands a more attractive destination for the researcher or engineer who is choosing between job offers in multiple countries. A significant portion of their salary is paid out without income tax, which improves their net financial position considerably compared to many competing jurisdictions. For employers, the practical effect is that the Netherlands becomes easier to sell as a destination, without necessarily having to offer a higher gross salary to compete. It is expected that the 30%-ruling will become a 27% ruling in 2027. Also note that a Netherlands-based recognized companies can attract talent with a High Skilled Migrant Visum.
For a full walkthrough of the 30%-ruling, including how business owners and entrepreneurs can access it, see our article on the 30% ruling:
Employee Incentives: Aligning Your Team With the Long Term
We experience that it can be sometimes difficult for starting quantum companies to compete on salary alone during the early years. The commercial payoff is years away, the cash is tight, and the people you need have options elsewhere. Employee incentive plans, whether equity-based or otherwise, are a practical way to bridge that gap: they align the team’s interests with the company’s long-term success and allow you to attract and retain talent without putting the full cost on the payroll from day one.
The Netherlands has a specific facility for this. Under the current stock option regime, employees are taxed at the moment the resulting shares become tradeable, rather than at the moment of exercise. For pre-revenue quantum companies whose shares are not yet liquid, this already avoids a situation where employees face a tax liability on shares they cannot yet sell.
From 1 January 2027, a new regime is expected to apply for qualifying startups and scale-ups. Under this proposed regime, taxation is deferred until the moment the employee actually sells the shares. Additionally, only 65% of the gain would be taxed, resulting in an effective rate of approximately 32%, broadly in line with the current Box 2 rate.
Going International: Tax Efficient Global Structure For The Company & Its Investors
The Netherlands can be a fruitful jurisdiction to have your operations and holding company, not only for cost and infrastructure reasons. For quantum companies that already have operations outside the Netherlands, or are planning to build them, three further features of the Dutch tax system are worth understanding. This makes the Netherlands favourable for the company and its investors. We identify the following reasons:
The 100% Participation and Withholding Tax Exemption
The Participation Exemption provides a 100% exemption from Dutch corporate income tax on dividends and capital gains received from qualifying subsidiaries. A shareholding qualifies when the company holds at least 5% of the nominal paid-up capital and the subsidiary conducts genuine operational activities. Having a Netherland-based holding company that holds rest of world operations means profits earned by subsidiaries abroad can flow up to a Dutch holding company without further Dutch corporate income tax, making the Netherlands a highly efficient hub for international profit consolidation.
Extensive Treaty Network for Favorable Up and Downstream Payments
Investors in the company benefit from the Netherlands’ network of approximately 100 tax treaties. The tax treaties and exemptions in the Dutch dividend withholding tax make it efficient to distribute dividends and future capital gains on the shares to the investors. It also makes intra-group payments [such as royalty income] attractive to receive and distribute. The amount of tax treaties makes sure that potentially investors from around the globe have access to a tax treaty. Not only the amount is impressive, but also the fact that the tax treaties are well negotiated and therefore create efficient intra-group payments:
Easy and Un-controversial Access to Advance Certainty from the Tax Authorities
Advance certainty through APA and ATR is particularly valuable for quantum companies navigating complex cross-border IP arrangements. Dutch companies can obtain formal advance agreements with the Dutch Tax Authorities on their transfer pricing approach [Advance Pricing Agreement], or on how Dutch tax law applies to their specific structure [Advance Tax Ruling]. This provides legal certainty before committing to a structure. For investors putting capital into capital-intensive deeptech businesses, that kind of upfront clarity is not a minor detail. We see that this is also often a condition of investment:
The Amsterdam Flip: a Quick Switch to a Dutch HQ
If your quantum company is already structured abroad and you are considering repositioning it with a Dutch holding, the mechanics of that restructuring are worth exploring separately. Apart from the fact that the Netherlands is a quantum powerhouse, the Netherlands is considered a trustworthy, reliable and modern country that help to grow companies internationally. We see often that investors therefore want a company to operate in the Netherlands and flip the activities to the Netherlands. Our article on the Amsterdam Flip covers how that works in practice:
Putting It Together
Quantum is no longer just theoretical. The science is here and the talent is here. We see that quantum companies typically spend years in R&D before generating revenue, build most of their value in IP, rely on international teams, and (hopefully) see a meaningful commercial return down the line.
The different tax instruments each support a part of that journey. The WBSO helps during the early years by reducing R&D costs and providing cash benefits well before there are profits. Once the IP starts generating income, the Innovation Box becomes relevant, bringing the effective tax rate down from 25.8% to 9%, a difference that really matters in valuations. The 30% ruling helps attract and retain international talent by making roles more attractive financially. The participation exemption keeps things simple at group level, allowing profits to flow without unnecessary tax leakage. And with the Dutch ruling practice, there’s the option to get upfront clarity from the tax authorities instead of dealing with uncertainty afterwards.
None of this is overly complex in itself, but timing and setup are key. For example, WBSO needs to be in place before the R&D starts. The Innovation Box only works if there is real substance behind it. And your corporate structure needs to be thought through early, ideally before the IP becomes valuable. In practice, it’s much easier to get this right from day one than to try and fix it later.
