How does the investeringsaftrek (investment deduction) work?
The deduction works with a scale per calendar year, and that scale belongs to the year of the investment. For 2026, the band up to €71,683 gives twenty-eight percent deduction, then a fixed amount of €20,072 follows up to €132,746, and above that the amount decreases to the upper limit of €398,236. Below the threshold of €2,901 there is no deduction. Each individual business asset must have cost at least €450 to count.
The investment year is the year in which you enter into the obligation. If you order in December and pay in January, the investment falls in the year of ordering. There is a restriction: if the business asset has not yet been put into use at the end of the year, the deduction that year is no higher than what you have paid for it up to then.
The desinvesteringsbijtelling (the disinvestment addition) is the catch. Do you sell or withdraw a business asset for which you received the deduction within five years, counted from the start of the calendar year in which you invested? If your disinvestments that year together exceed the threshold, a percentage is added back to your profit. Note the starting point: those five years run from the start of the investment year and not from the purchase date, and the threshold applies per year over all sales together.
The exclusion list in the law is abstract, so here is what it means for what this audience actually buys. A phone, a laptop, camera equipment and tools count as soon as they reach €450. A bicycle counts to the extent you use it for business. A passenger car is excluded, unless it is intended for professional transport, and for a maker that is almost never the case. Equipment you rent out to others is excluded, even if you also use it yourself; that is the sharpest edge of the list.
Where is the investeringsaftrek (investment deduction) in the law?
These legal sources come from the specialist dossiers that were reviewed on 24 August 2026. Mind the difference that becomes large in a dispute: a statutory article next to a value is where that value is found, not a justification for how it applies to your situation.
- Articles 3.40 to 3.47 inclusive of the Dutch Income Tax Act (Wet IB 2001)regulate the investment deduction, the concept of investing, the exclusions and the restriction as long as a business asset has not been put into use
- Article 3.47 of the Dutch Income Tax Act (Wet IB 2001)regulates the desinvesteringsbijtelling within five years of the start of the investment year, with a threshold amount per calendar year
The links go to the statutory text on wetten.overheid.nl, in the version that applied on 24 September 2026.
What does basestep do with the investeringsaftrek (investment deduction)?
The platform monitors your investments per calendar year against the scale of that year and tracks the five-year term per business asset, counted from the start of the investment year. The amounts below are the 2026 scale; for an earlier year it calculates with the table of that year. What you must check yourself is whether a business asset is on the exclusion list, because that depends on the use and not on the purchase.
All calculations, explanations and signals in basestep are calculation support and instruction, not tax or legal advice. Amounts are estimates based on your own input; the Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst) sets the assessment.
Where does it go wrong with the investeringsaftrek (investment deduction)?
The two mistakes you run into most often in practice with this term, and what they cost you.
Using the payment year
The investment year is the year in which you enter into the obligation. An order from December that you pay in January belongs in the year of ordering and not in the year of paying.
Counting the five years from the purchase date
The term runs from the start of the calendar year in which you invested. An investment from December 2026 is therefore only out of the danger zone from 1 January 2031, and that is sooner than five years after the purchase date.
Assuming everything counts
Among others, goodwill, land, homes, passenger cars not intended for professional transport and business assets you rent out are excluded. If you are unsure about a car or about equipment you rent out, a tax specialist should look at it.
Further reading
Three places this term is tied to, inside this glossary and beyond.