What are the different possibilities for deducting my vehicle and related expenses?

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As a self-employed, you make all kinds of trips with your vehicle. First, we need to differentiate between 3 types of trips:

• Private journeys: these trips are not made as part of your self-employed activity and therefore cannot be deducted. For example: dropping off your children at school, visiting family or friends, etc.

• Commuting from home to workplace: if you are self-employed and have a fixed workplace, such as an office, you can opt to pay 15 cents per km commuting. These journeys are not considered to be business trips. For this reason, they are deductible in a different way.

• Other purely pro travel: this trip is directly linked to your professional activity as a self-employed. Examples: visits to your customers, your banker, meetings. In this case, you cannot use the fixed mileage rate and must deduct your actual expenses.

Ways of deducting your travel expenses:

In Belgium, it is possible to deduct vehicle-related expenses incurred as part of your self-employed activity according to three methods: actual expenses, flat fee expenses and commuting expenses.

1. Commuting expenses

As a reminder, these trips are not considered professional. However, if you are self-employed and have a fixed place of work, such as an office, you can claim a mileage allowance of 15 cents per km for travel related to this activity.

What is considered a workplace for self-employed workers?

The tax authorities consider a fixed workplace to be any place where you carry out self-employed activity for at least 40 days a year, whether it's an office, a visit to a regular client, your practice or something else.

Tax regulations provide for a maximum limit of 100 km per one-way trip for travel between your home and a fixed place of work.
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In practical terms, this means:

• If your workplace is located 80 km from your home, you may account for 80 km.

• If it is located 130 km away, you may only account for 100 km.

Even if the actual distance is greater, the tax authorities cap the calculation at 100 km (one way).
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This limit applies per day and per fixed place of work.

It is also possible to have several fixed workplaces in the course of a year. In this case, travel between the place of residence and each fixed workplace is no longer considered as purely business travel. As a result, you can deduct a mileage allowance of 0.15 cents per kilometer for these home-workplace journeys.

Examples:

• You are a doctor who goes to your practice every day for consultations with your patients.

• You are an IT specialist and go at least 40 days a year to the same customer.

→ Your home-work commute is 40 km (round trip) 200 days a year: 200*40*0.15= €1,200.

2. Actual expenses

When you deduct your car purchase and related expenses with Accountable, the App does the deductibility calculations for you. You'll find all the information in this article.

Actual expenses cover not only your car expenses, but also all your business expenses! That's why you need to include all receipts and invoices in your expenses.

Examples:

• You're a consultant, and you need to visit potential customers to prospect.

• You're an entrepreneur and need to visit your customers in the course of your business.

• You need to visit your banker.

• Travel for professional training.

→ You can deduct the cost of fuel, car insurance, road taxes and maintenance in proportion to the % of business use, which also depends on the type of vehicle.

3. Flat fee expenses

If your total actual expenses (travel and other) are below a certain threshold (see below), you will benefit by default from flat fee expenses.

Flat fee expenses, also known as lump sum, cover all business expenses, including those related to the use of your vehicle for commuting to and from work + all expenses related to your vehicle for purely business purposes (insurance, gas, etc.).

From the Taxes screen, in the Income tax submission section, at point 6 "Income", the system will tell you what is most interesting for you. In the blue box, you'll see a message telling you which is the best method for deducting your business expenses. Simply click on "Click here" to change method:

For your information :

• * Here is how the flat fee is calculated for a commercial activity with a threshold of €5,750:

• ** Here is how the flat fee is calculated for a self-employed activity with a ceiling of €5,050:

Examples:

• Travel from home to work.

• Travel to potential customers for prospecting purposes.

• Travel to your bank.

→ If your actual expenses are not significant, then you can deduct a maximum lump sum of €5,750 or €5,050 (depending on the type of activity).

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us via chat or by e-mail at the following address: support@accountable.eu.

Author - Valesca Wilms

As content marketing lead at Accountable Belgium, Valesca writes about freelancing, self-employment, and taxes based on her own experience as a freelancer.

Who is Valesca ?