Certification on NovaTax Blog

What is a Corfo R&D certificate and how do you get one?

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

To use the R&D Law benefit, doing research and development is not enough: the project or contract must be certified by Corfo. That certification, granted through a formal resolution, is what people usually call “the Corfo certificate”.

What is certification?

It is the process in which a company asks Corfo to verify that its project or contract meets the requirements of Law 20,241. If Corfo approves it, it issues a reasoned resolution that allows the company to apply the tax benefit to the R&D expenditure it actually incurs.

Joint R&D projects: applying together with other companies

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

R&D is rarely done alone. A supplier and its customer, two companies in the same industry or a large company and a startup may share a technical problem. The R&D Law lets them tackle it together through a joint project or contract (proyecto asociativo).

What a joint project is

It’s an R&D project or contract involving two or more taxpayers, who fund it together and apply to Corfo for certification jointly. Each company claims the tax benefit on its own contribution.

How to prove your R&D team's capabilities to Corfo

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In the project mode of the R&D Law, a good idea isn’t enough: Corfo checks that the company has sufficient equipment and qualified staff to carry it out. It’s one of the most avoidable reasons for rejection. See Why Corfo rejects projects.

What the regulation requires

Staff capabilities

The Certification Regulation requires at least one science or engineering professional and/or technician with demonstrable R&D experience in the 36 months before the application. It’s proven with:

Why Corfo rejects R&D Law projects (and how to avoid it)

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Applying under the R&D Law doesn’t guarantee the benefit. According to a University of Chile study based on Corfo data, the certification rate was 54.4% in 2021, and that year only 37% of the amounts applied for were certified. In other words, a significant share of applications are rejected in full or in part.

The good news: the reasons for rejection are well known and mostly avoidable.

1. “It’s a routine improvement”

This is by far the most common reason. With 2015 data, 64% of rejections happened because Corfo considered the project to consist of “routine, repetitive or minor improvements, adaptations and analyses”, one of the law’s express exclusions.