Depreciating your laptop: the schedule, the residual value and the trap
If a laptop costs €450 or more, it is a business asset (bedrijfsmiddel): you do not deduct it in one go but depreciate it (afschrijven). You spread the purchase costs minus the residual value over the years you use it, with a maximum of 20% of the purchase costs per year. That maximum means at least five years. If you buy it halfway through the year, in that first year you only depreciate over the months you had it.
Below €450 you do deduct the amount as costs in one go. This article works it out with a laptop of €1,500, explains the first-year trap, describes what willekeurig afschrijven (depreciating at a pace you choose yourself) for starters is, and covers VAT (btw) and private use. The tax explanation on this page follows Dutch law and is written for Dutch sole proprietorships (eenmanszaak).
This is general information, not tax or legal advice. basestep calculates and explains; you file yourself. If you are unsure about your situation, consult an adviser.
residual value €300: that is where depreciation stops
When is a laptop a business asset?
If you use it in your business for several years and do not resell it, and if it costs €450 or more. In the words of the Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax authority), a business asset is something you need to make products or provide services and that you use for several years. Think of buildings, machines, cars and fixtures, and so also of a laptop, a phone or a camera. If you buy such a thing for less than €450, you may deduct the amount as costs in one go in the year of purchase.
The €450 threshold applies per business asset. The amount you look at is the purchase price excluding VAT if you can deduct the VAT, and including VAT if you cannot, for example because you take part in the kleineondernemersregeling (KOR, the Dutch small businesses VAT scheme). A laptop of €400 excluding VAT is costs; a laptop of €1,500 is a business asset.
With a business asset, the amount does not come off your profit in one go but in pieces, and that is depreciation. The idea behind it is that the laptop is not used up in the first year: it provides service for five years, so the costs belong to five years. The term afschrijving (depreciation) on this site gives the definition.
- Business asset: used for several years, not resold, €450 or more.
- Below €450: costs in one go.
- Depreciation spreads the costs over the years in which the thing is useful.
How do you calculate the depreciation?
With the formula of the Belastingdienst: depreciation per year is the purchase costs minus the residual value, divided by the expected useful life. The purchase costs are what you paid, plus additional costs such as shipping costs. The residual value is what the laptop is expected to be worth when you no longer use it. The useful life is how long you expect to use it, with the lower limit that the next question explains.
The worked example: a laptop of €1,500 excluding VAT, an expected residual value of €300 and a useful life of five years. The depreciation is then (1,500 minus 300) divided by 5, so €240 a year. Every year you deduct €240 as costs, and the book value of the laptop in your bookkeeping drops from 1,500 via 1,260, 1,020, 780 and 540 to €300. That is where it stops: you do not depreciate below the residual value.
The residual value is an estimate, and a reasonable estimate is enough. For a laptop, a residual value of a few hundred euros after five years is common; zero is too low, because a five-year-old laptop is still worth something. Write down how you arrived at your estimate, because that is the question if a question comes.
- (purchase costs minus residual value) divided by useful life.
- Example: (1,500 minus 300) divided by 5 is €240 a year.
- The book value drops to the residual value and no further.
Why at least five years?
Because the law sets a maximum on depreciation per year: for most business assets at most 20% of the purchase costs. Twenty percent a year is five years, so you may not depreciate faster than in five years, even if you expect to replace the laptop after three years. For goodwill a maximum of 10% a year applies, so ten years; that rarely comes up for a maker.
Note that the maximum applies to the purchase costs and not to the amount to be depreciated. In the example, 20% of €1,500 is €300 a year, and the calculated depreciation of €240 stays below that, so it is allowed. If you took a residual value of zero and a useful life of three years, you would arrive at €500 a year, and that is more than the maximum. Then you still depreciate at most €300 a year.
Longer than five years is allowed, if the laptop really lasts longer. The rule is a ceiling on the speed, not a requirement for the duration. For a laptop, five years is the usual choice, and usually also the honest one.
- At most 20% of the purchase costs per year, so at least five years.
- Goodwill: at most 10%, so ten years.
- Longer is allowed, faster is not.
The first-year trap: pro rata over time (naar tijdsgelang)
In the year of purchase you do not depreciate a full year, but only over the months you had the business asset. The Belastingdienst gives the example: if you buy on 1 October, you may take 3/12 of the annual depreciation for that year. In our example that is 3/12 of €240, so €60 in the first year. The remaining depreciation moves on, so the laptop still yields €1,200 of depreciation in total, but spread over six calendar years instead of five.
This is the trap because many starters include a full year of depreciation in their first return for something they bought in November. That is too much, and it is one of the corrections the Belastingdienst makes most often for small business owners. Calculate per month, and do not round up.
The same rule applies at the end. If you sell the laptop or stop the business, in that year you depreciate up to the month of sale. The difference between the book value and what you get for it is profit or loss. A laptop with a book value of €540 that you sell for €700 gives €160 profit.
- First year: only the months you had the thing; 1 October is 3/12.
- Example: €60 in the first year, the rest moves on.
- On sale: book value against proceeds is profit or loss.
What is willekeurig afschrijven for starters?
A scheme that lets a starting entrepreneur decide for themselves how fast they depreciate. It applies to business assets bought in the years in which they were entitled to the startersaftrek (an extra deduction for starting entrepreneurs), or in the year before that, the aanloopjaar (the run-up year). You may then, for example, take the whole depreciation in the first year. Your profit in that year is then lower, and you pay less tax at the moment you need the money most. Or you go slower, if you have no profit in the first year anyway.
The conditions according to the Belastingdienst are these three. Your business is an eenmanszaak, maatschap, vennootschap onder firma or commanditaire vennootschap (Dutch forms of sole proprietorship and partnership). You meet the conditions of the startersaftrek, and so also the urencriterium (the 1,225-hour test). And the business asset qualifies for the investeringsaftrek (the investment deduction). You cannot apply willekeurig afschrijven to business assets that do not qualify for it. The total of investments to which you apply it is capped at the maximum of the kleinschaligheidsinvesteringsaftrek (the small-scale investment deduction).
For a maker with a job alongside, the scheme is only within reach if they meet the urencriterium; as a starter, only the 1,225 hours count for that. Whoever meets it and buys a laptop and a phone in the first year can lower their first profit considerably with willekeurig afschrijven. The term startersaftrek on this site describes the conditions.
- Set the pace yourself, on business assets from the starter years or the run-up year.
- Conditions: a sole proprietorship or partnership, entitlement to the startersaftrek, investeringsaftrek possible.
- Only with the urencriterium; as a starter that is the 1,225 hours.
How does the VAT on the purchase work?
Separately from the depreciation. If you are an ordinary VAT-registered business, you deduct the VAT on the laptop in one go as input VAT (voorbelasting), in the return for the quarter in which you bought it. For income tax you depreciate the amount excluding VAT. So the VAT is not part of the purchase costs; it goes its own way.
If you take part in the kleineondernemersregeling, you cannot deduct the VAT. The VAT is then part of your costs, and you depreciate the amount including VAT. For a laptop of €1,500 excluding VAT that is €1,815, and therefore also a higher depreciation per year. That is one of the reasons the kleineondernemersregeling can be unfavourable in a year with investments.
If you use the laptop partly privately, the VAT deduction is also limited to the business part; the last question covers that. The term voorbelasting on this site explains the conditions for the deduction.
- Ordinary VAT-registered business: VAT back in one go as input VAT, depreciate excluding VAT.
- Kleineondernemersregeling: no deduction, depreciate including VAT.
- Private use also limits the VAT deduction.
What if you also use the laptop privately?
Then only the business part may count as costs. A laptop you use half privately, you depreciate for half, and you deduct half of the VAT. The split is a reasonable estimate that you must be able to explain. A laptop you only use for your business, next to a private laptop, is one hundred percent business; a laptop that is also the family device is not.
If you choose to count the laptop as business assets (ondernemingsvermogen), a fixed system applies to the private use; if you keep it private, you may only deduct the business costs. For a laptop that is mostly used for business, it is customary to treat it as business assets. If in doubt, record your split and your reason at the moment of purchase, not in the return a year later.
The administration in basestep calculates the depreciation with the schedule, the statutory ceiling and the months of the first year, and explains for each amount where it comes from. What it does not do is decide for you what is business; that remains your estimate and your explanation.
- Only depreciate and deduct the business part.
- A reasonable split you can explain; record it at purchase.
- The platform calculates; the split is your choice.
Sources
Checked on 5 September 2026. The threshold, the formula, the maximum and the pro rata rule come from the Belastingdienst; the worked example with the laptop is our own illustration with round numbers.
Further reading
Three places that connect to this.
From first prompt to tax return.
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