As a self-employed person in Belgium, you can deduct vehicle-related expenses using three methods: actual expenses, flat fee expenses, and commuting expenses. To apply the right method, you first need to identify the type of trip involved.
There are three types of trips to distinguish:
Private journeys: these trips are not made as part of your self-employed activity and 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 claim a mileage allowance of 15 cents per km for these journeys. They are not considered business trips and are deductible in a different way.
Other purely professional travel: these trips are directly linked to your professional activity as a self-employed person. Examples: visits to your customers, your banker, meetings. In this case, you cannot use the fixed mileage rate and must deduct your actual expenses.
Please note that this article provides general guidance only. Tax rules may vary depending on your individual situation. When in doubt, ask your Tax Coach.
This article covers each of the three deduction methods in detail: commuting expenses, actual expenses, and flat fee expenses.
As a reminder, commuting 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.
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 is an office, a visit to a regular client, your practice, or something else.
🚨 If you work and commute to the same place for at least 40 days a year, that place is automatically considered a fixed workplace.
🚨🚨 It's important to consider a maximum distance of 100 kilometers (one way) between home and workplace.
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.
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).
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 your place of residence and each fixed workplace is no longer considered purely business travel. As a result, you can deduct a mileage allowance of 0.15 cents per kilometre for these home-to-workplace journeys.
💡 In Accountable, you can't encode this lump sum in your expenses and thus should keep an Excel spreadsheet, for example, to record the kilometers traveled as part of your home-work commute. You will need to enter the amount in part 2 of your IPP declaration under code 1606 (if you work in the commercial sector) or 1657 (if you work in the liberal sector).
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 x 40 x 0.15 = €1,200.
When you deduct your car purchase and related expenses with Accountable, Accountable does the deductibility calculations for you. You will find all the information in the guide to deducting car expenses.
Actual expenses cover not only your car expenses, but also all your business expenses. That is why you need to include all receipts and invoices in your expenses.
Examples:
You are a consultant and need to visit potential customers to prospect.
You are 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.
💡 In Accountable, you need to encode all invoices/receipts for all your business expenses.
If your total actual expenses (travel and other) are below a certain threshold (see below), you 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, plus all expenses related to your vehicle for purely business purposes (insurance, fuel, etc.).
🚨 If you choose flat fee expenses, you can't additionally deduct home-work trips expenses at 15 cents per km, as these are included in the flat fee expenses.
💡 You need to enter all receipts and invoices for your business expenses into the App, since the app calculates for you whether opting for flat fee or actual expenses is more advantageous!
From the Taxes screen, in the Income tax submission section, at point 6 "Income", the system will tell you what is most advantageous for you. In the blue box, you will 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:
Fiscal year 2026, 2025 revenues | Flat fee |
Commercial activity* | The flat fee deduction for professional expenses is limited to €5,930. |
Liberal Activity** | The flat fee deduction for professional expenses is limited to €5,210. |
* Here is how the flat fee is calculated for a commercial activity with a threshold of €5,930:
Income bracket in € | Percentage |
From 0.01 to 19,766.65 | 30% |
** Here is how the flat fee is calculated for a self-employed activity with a ceiling of €5,210:
Income bracket in € | Percentage |
0 - 7,540 | 28.7% |
7,540 - 14,970 | 10% |
14,970 - 24,920 | 5% |
24,920 - 85,103.83 | 3% |
85,103.83+ | 0% |
Examples:
Travel from home to work.
Travel to potential customers for prospecting purposes.
Travel to your bank.
If your actual expenses are not significant, you can deduct a maximum lump sum of €5,930 or €5,210 (depending on the type of activity).
There are three types of trips: private (not deductible), commuting (deductible at 15 cents/km), and purely professional (deductible as actual expenses).
Commuting trips are capped at 100 km per one-way trip per fixed workplace per day.
Actual expenses cover all professional expenses, proportional to business use and vehicle type.
If your actual expenses are low, the flat fee method gives you a lump sum deduction of up to €5,930 (commercial) or €5,210 (liberal activity).
Accountable calculates deductibility for you when you add your vehicle and related expenses.
Need help? Chat with us or email support@accountable.eu, we're happy to help.
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 ?Thank you for your feedback!
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