What does "passing on costs" mean?
Sometimes you incur costs that are really meant for your client: a train ticket to visit them, parking costs, materials you buy in for a job. You're allowed to reclaim these costs from your client. This is called passing on costs (or "doorfactureren" in Dutch).
Important to know: once you pass these costs on, they become part of your revenue. You're not selling "a train ticket" — you're selling your service, of which that trip is a part.
How do I invoice passed-on costs to my client?
Step 1: Book the costs as your own regular business expense
Enter the receipt or invoice in the Webapp, just like any other business expense. We process this in your VAT return, so the VAT you paid gets reclaimed.
Step 2: Put the amount excluding VAT on your invoice
Remove the VAT you paid yourself (e.g. 9% on a train ticket), and add that net amount as a separate line on your invoice.
Step 3: Apply your own VAT rate to the total
Not the VAT rate you paid, but the rate that applies to your service (usually 21%). You apply this to the entire invoice — including the passed-on costs.
Example
You're invoicing a project worth €1,000 and had a return train ticket Utrecht–Amsterdam of €16.00 (9% VAT).
Description | Amount |
Train ticket (incl. 9% VAT) | €16.00 |
Train ticket excl. VAT (€16.00 ÷ 1.09) | €14.68 |
On your invoice: |
|
Project | €1,000.00 |
Travel costs Utrecht–Amsterdam | €14.68 |
Subtotal | €1,014.68 |
21% VAT | €213.08 |
Total | €1,227.76 |
So you paid 9% VAT on the ticket, but you charge your client 21% — because it's part of your service delivery.
Watch out with mixed invoices (goods and services): if different VAT rates apply to what you're supplying, you're not allowed to artificially combine or split these to get a lower rate. Read how the Dutch Tax Authority assesses this.
How do I ask another freelancer or business to pass costs on to me?
Are you the client yourself, hiring another freelancer or business? Then you can also have costs passed on to you via an invoice. Here's how:
Make written agreements in advance. Record which costs you'll reimburse (travel, materials, parking), and whether this is based on receipts or a fixed allowance.
Ask for the costs to appear as a separate line on the invoice. This way you can see exactly what the rate was and what was passed on.
Expect the VAT rate of the main service to apply. The person invoicing you charges the same VAT percentage on the passed-on costs as on their own service (usually 21%) — even if they themselves paid a lower rate.
Keep the invoice as a normal purchase invoice. You process the full amount (service + passed-on costs) as a cost in your administration in The Bookie Webapp, including any VAT you reclaim.
So you don't need to separately request the original train ticket or receipt from the other party — that stays in their own records. For you, the invoice you receive is what counts.
Did you receive an expense claim form instead? Then you process that as a cost in your administration. There are two ways to do this: using the original receipts, OR the PDF of the expense claim form with the receipts as a single expense entry.
What's the difference with expense claims (declareren)?
This often gets mixed up, but they're two different things:
| Passing on costs | Expense claims (declareren) |
Who does it | Business to business (freelancer/company to client) | Employee to employer, or when working with volunteers or people who don't invoice |
How | Via an invoice, with VAT | Via an expense claim form, without VAT |
Bookkeeping | Counts as revenue for you | Not revenue — a tax-free reimbursement of personally incurred costs |
VAT | You apply your own VAT rate to the passed-on amount | No VAT applies |
In short: expense claims belong to an employment relationship, or when you incur costs as a volunteer — the employer, foundation, or business reimburses costs that the employee or volunteer incurred for the (volunteer) work, without any VAT or revenue involved. Passing on costs happens between businesses: it goes via an invoice, counts as revenue, and VAT is involved.