If you can clearly demonstrate that the travel is necessary for your work, the costs are deductible without a threshold.

However, according to the Dutch Tax Authorities, travel and accommodation costs are considered “mixed costs” and are only partially deductible. For example, if you travel abroad for an assignment or client, you can only partially deduct flights and hotel stays related to that business trip. This means we apply a private-use correction at the end of the year.

These limitations differ for VAT and income tax.

Is the trip mainly for inspiration and/or does it not serve a direct business purpose abroad? In other words, is it not strictly necessary to go? Then it’s important to assess to what extent the costs are business-deductible.

During a workation, you work on your business—for example by speaking with clients, gaining inspiration, or partially working on assignments. Organized trips to regain focus, make plans, or work on marketing can also qualify. A workation is essentially a combination of business activities and vacation.

To qualify as a workation, at least 50% of the trip must have a business purpose. There is also a minimum cost threshold that applies.

Only the business-related portion of the trip is deductible. A workation is usually categorized as “representation” or “education/training” expenses, both of which have threshold rules. The same percentage is also applied to general costs.

You can only treat costs as business expenses if you can reasonably demonstrate that you needed to be on location to perform your regular work.

For example, if you create video reports, it makes sense that you sometimes need to be on-site.

But claiming travel and accommodation costs just because you prefer doing your admin on a beach with a cocktail in hand… unfortunately, that won’t qualify as business expenses 🙂

To demonstrate to the tax authorities that a trip is (partly) business-related, you should keep as much evidence as possible. Think of business emails, appointments, or meeting notes.

For example: an email or message confirming a meeting at a location where you’ll be working.

Of course, always keep all payment proofs: invoices, receipts, and tickets.

Keep these two points in mind:

So we process the full amount including VAT and set the VAT to 0%.

Plus | we process your expenses for you
You send your receipts and invoices to your Bookie Inbox. Since our Armenian, Chinese (and other languages you might use) isn’t always perfect, we ask you to add a short description on the receipt—what is it?

This way we don’t have to spend hours figuring out handwritten taxi receipts.

Basic | you process your own expenses
We ask you to include the same kind of explanation when entering receipts yourself.

Use the category: “travel and accommodation costs 80%”.
You enter 100% of the costs, and at the end of the year we ensure that 80% is deducted from your taxable profit.

If you mention that the costs relate to a business activity or client abroad (for example, a conference), you’ll be all set.