A carpaccio sandwich with a client, a poke bowl during a working day or a long lunch ‘because you’re working anyway’. It all sounds very businesslike, but the Tax Authority (Belastingdienst) doesn’t always agree. After all, not every lunch you eat during working hours is automatically a business expense.
Put simply: you have to eat anyway
The key question is: are you incurring these lunch costs because you are an entrepreneur, or simply because you need to eat?
That may sound obvious, but that is exactly where the difference lies. A lunch you buy because you get peckish during your working day is usually just a private expense. Even if you are answering emails, working on a quote or sitting in a coffee shop with your laptop at the same time. After all, you would have had to eat even if you weren’t an entrepreneur.
So grabbing a sandwich on a normal working day? Not deductible. Ordering a salad while you sit at your laptop at home? That doesn’t suddenly make it business either. Or adding a cappuccino because you’re ‘in the flow’? Sadly, no tax windfall.
When is lunch a business expense?
Lunch gets more interesting as soon as there is a clear business reason. Think of a lunch with a client, supplier, business partner or prospective client. You discuss a project, contract, collaboration or strategy, for example. In that case, the lunch is not just a pleasant bite to eat, but part of a business relationship.
A lunch during a business meeting, networking appointment or external meeting can also count as business. It is then not about the fact that there is food on the table, but about the business purpose behind it.
Rule of thumb: would you have had this lunch if there had been no business appointment? If the answer is no, you have a stronger case with the Tax Authority.
Note: not everything is fully deductible
Even if the lunch is for business, that does not automatically mean you can deduct the full amount without a second thought. Costs of food, drink and entertainment fall under the so-called partly deductible costs (beperkt aftrekbare kosten). For entrepreneurs paying income tax, a threshold of €5,700 applies in 2026. You can only deduct the amount above that threshold. Alternatively, you can choose to deduct 80% of these costs. Then you don’t have to work with the threshold first and you know straight away where you stand.
In short: A business lunch can be deductible, but usually not for the full 100%. The Tax Authority doesn’t just pull up a chair and pick up the whole bill.