Car, bike or other business transport: what to know

Got appointments out of the office? Then you need transport. Perhaps you are considering a company car, you would rather drive your own car, or you simply hop on your bike. For tax purposes, that choice makes quite a difference. These are the rules for 2026 if you are an entrepreneur for income tax purposes, for example with a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak) or as a freelancer.

Using your own car, motorbike or bicycle for business

If your vehicle stays private, you deduct a fixed amount from your profit for every business kilometre. In 2026 that is €0.25 per kilometre; in 2025 it was still €0.23. This applies to a car, but also to a motorbike or bicycle that you own or rent privately. You then do not deduct fuel, insurance, tolls and parking separately: they are already included in that amount.

Good to know: for income tax, commuting counts as business travel. Do keep a mileage log, so you can show how many business kilometres you drove.

A company car

If you put the car on your business’s balance sheet, all car costs are deductible, such as fuel, maintenance and insurance, plus depreciation. If you also drive it privately, you add an amount for private use to your profit (bijtelling). That addition is never higher than your car costs, including depreciation.

For a car with emissions, the addition is usually 22% of the list price (cataloguswaarde). If your car was first registered in your name before 2017 and fell under the 25% rate at the time, that rate still applies. For a fully electric car with a date of first admission (datum eerste toelating) in 2026, it is 18% up to a list price of €30,000 and 22% on the part above that. That lower rate applies for 60 months, counted from the first day of the month after first admission. If your electric car was first admitted in an earlier year, you keep that year’s rate for as long as those 60 months run. If your car is older than 16 years, the addition is 35% of its current market value. In 2026 that also applies if you already used the car in 2025 and it was older than 15 years at the end of 2025.

If you drive no more than 500 private kilometres a year, you do not have to add anything. You do have to be able to prove it, which in practice means a complete mileage log.

And VAT?

If the car belongs to your business and you also drive it privately, you pay VAT on that private use. If you cannot show the private use with records, that VAT is 2.7% of the list price, including VAT and BPM (the Dutch registration tax). You use 1.5% if you did not deduct VAT when you bought the car, for example a car bought from a private seller, or if the private use takes place more than 4 years after the year in which you started using the car. The correction is never higher than the VAT you deducted that year on maintenance and running costs, plus one fifth of the VAT you deducted on the purchase.

If you drive your private car for business, you may deduct the VAT on maintenance and running costs for the business share. If you cannot show the split between business and private use in your records, you may deduct all of that VAT, but at the end of the year you correct 1.5% of the list price. That correction is never higher than the VAT you deducted that year on maintenance and running costs. Note: for VAT, commuting does count as private.

A company bicycle

A bicycle can belong to your business too. The costs are then deductible, and for private use you add 7% of the bike’s recommended retail price to your profit. If you do not know the recommended retail price, you use that of a comparable bike.

Scooter, motorbike or microcar

For other vehicles that belong to your business, such as a scooter, motorbike or microcar (brommobiel), there is no fixed percentage. If you use one privately, you settle the number of private kilometres times the actual cost per kilometre. A microcar has one more advantage: it can count towards the small business investment deduction (KIA). You can read more about that in Small car, big tax break.

What is the smart choice?

That depends on how much you drive for business, what your vehicle costs and how much you drive privately. An expensive car that you also use a lot privately often yields less than you expect on your business because of the addition for private use. Not sure? Feel free to get in touch, and we will work it out with you.