Which deductions should I check before filing my tax return?
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Detailed explanation, checklist and sources
Check the tax year, conditions and evidence for each expense. Spending money does not automatically make it deductible, nor does a deduction refund the same amount. This concerns Dutch personal income tax, not business costs.
Dutch tax return 2025: help with filling it in
Prepare your Dutch income tax return for 2025. Choose your situation for explanations of 26 fields, examples, document checks and a downloadable guide.
On this page
- Sort year and evidence
- Check healthcare costs
- Check donations
- Separate home and maintenance
- Avoid incorrect standard items
- Check and submit yourself
- Public transport and annuity contributions
- Temporary home care for someone with a severe disability
- Will all deducted costs be refunded?
- Documents to prepare
- Sources
1. Sort year and evidence
Record type, date, payer, beneficiary and reimbursed or reimbursable amount for each expense. Compare invoices and payment evidence. Use the filing year’s rules; a 2026 overview is not automatically valid for your 2025 return.
2. Check healthcare costs
For 2026 health-insurance premiums and the deductible excess are not deductible. Only qualifying healthcare expenses personally paid without reimbursement entitlement may count, with relief only above the threshold. Check the official list and person-specific conditions.
3. Check donations
Check ANBI status and whether the donation is ordinary or periodic; associations have different conditions. Cash gifts are not deductible. Ordinary donations have a threshold and cap; periodic gifts require the proper agreement and conditions.
4. Separate home and maintenance
Use our separate home guide for mortgage interest and financing costs. Paid partner maintenance may qualify subject to conditions; retain agreements and payments. Do not include settlements, housing benefits or other maintenance without checking their particular rules.
5. Avoid incorrect standard items
An employee’s commuting by own car or bicycle is not a personal deduction. Study costs are not generally deductible; a narrow exception exists for certain old performance grants. Business expenses follow the separate business rules.
6. Check and submit yourself
Enter only supported items in the official return. Check thresholds, partner allocation and outcome; tax credits and deductions differ. Keep the return and receipt. Ask focused help if uncertain; this checklist files nothing and guarantees no refund.
7. Public transport and annuity contributions
For the public-transport deduction you pay your own fares, travel more than 10 kilometres by public transport and normally commute weekly or at least 40 days a year to a fixed workplace, returning within 24 hours. You need a transport-provider or employer travel declaration and evidence; an employer declaration has extra proof requirements. Download travel records promptly: providers retain them for at most 18 months. Distance, days and employer reimbursement determine the deduction, capped at €2,649 in 2026 and €2,609 in 2025. For paid annuity premiums or deposits, use the official annual/reserve allowance calculator with last year's income and pension accrual, and the past ten years for reserve allowance. Payment alone does not make the whole sum deductible.
8. Temporary home care for someone with a severe disability
This separate deduction can cover your child, sibling, or someone for whom a court appointed you mentor or curator responsible for personal interests. The person is at least 21 and normally lives in a Wlz institution; you provide weekend or holiday care. Only unreimbursed costs from the 21st birthday count. In 2025 and 2026 the allowance is €13 per stay day, including collection and return days. Car travel uses the home–institution return distance even for a different holiday address: €0.23 per kilometre in 2025 and €0.25 in 2026. Partners cannot deduct the same costs twice. Whole-year partners, including those opting for that treatment, may allocate a total of 100%; part-year partners without that choice use one deduction or, if both qualify, half each.
Will all deducted costs be refunded?
No. A deduction reduces a taxable base; the result depends on income, rules and thresholds. It is not an automatic euro-for-euro reimbursement.
Documents to prepare
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Tax year
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Your timeline and evidence
List events and contacts. Note where you keep the evidence; no upload is needed.
What goes in my timeline?
Record what happened, when, the response and where to find the letter, message or photo. Mark uncertain dates.
Is my evidence sent?
No. You only note where it is kept. No files are uploaded or sent automatically.
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For each event, note the date, what happened and where the evidence is kept. Example: 3 October — letter received — correspondence folder.
Describe the solution you would like, such as an explanation of a deduction and repayment of the outstanding amount.
For example: which document is missing, who can provide it and what should I do first?
Record the date and its source. If unknown, note this and check promptly. This tool does not calculate or monitor deadlines.
After your conversation
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Clear entries
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- Tax year
- Invoices and payment dates
- Reimbursements and insurer
- ANBI/agreement
- Home or maintenance documents
- Return and receipt
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BD overzicht aftrek ↗BD zorgkosten2026 ↗BD giften ↗BD studiekosten ↗BD woon-werk eigen vervoer ↗BD partneralimentatie ↗Belastingdienst · Reisaftrek openbaar vervoer ↗Belastingdienst · Lijfrentehulp ↗Belastingdienst · Tijdelijk thuisverblijf ↗Sources may be in Dutch. General information about Dutch law, not individual legal advice.