Phone, internet and software: deducting your tools

Your phone, broadband, and software subscriptions are among the easiest business costs to deduct. Unlike meals or a car (which come with caveats), these are straightforward: they are fully deductible as business expenses. The trick is knowing how to claim them correctly, especially if you're mixing personal and business use.

Software and SaaS subscriptions: fully deductible#

If you pay for a software subscription—Slack, Figma, Notion, Adobe Creative Cloud, your bookkeeping app, or any other SaaS tool—the full amount is a deductible business cost. Period. No partial deduction, no documentation worries beyond the receipt or invoice.

Why? Because it's a pure business tool. You're not eating it, driving it, or living in it. It's a service you use to run your business, and the Belastingdienst treats it as such.

How to claim it:

1. Keep the invoice or subscription confirmation.
2. Categorize it as "software," "subscriptions," or "tools" in your bookkeeping.
3. Deduct the full annual or monthly amount in the year it's paid.
4. If you pay monthly, deduct monthly. If you pay annual, deduct it all at once.

Phone and internet: deduct your business share#

If your phone plan or broadband is used partly for business and partly personally, you can deduct the business share only.

Example: You have a phone plan costing €60 per month. You estimate it's 70% business and 30% personal. You can deduct 70% × €60 = €42 per month, or €504 per year.

The key is being reasonable about the split. The Belastingdienst won't challenge a 70/30 or 80/20 split if your business genuinely uses the phone a lot. But if you claim 99% business use for a plan you also use for personal calls, you might invite audit scrutiny.

A simple approach: estimate your business use honestly (perhaps by looking at your call history and calendar), note it in your bookkeeping as a memo, and stick with it year after year.

Pro tip: If you have a business phone line separate from your personal phone, the deduction is 100% and the documentation is trivial. The cost difference is usually worth the simplicity.

Hardware: it depends on price#

Laptops, monitors, keyboards, microphones, headsets, routers—these are "business assets" and the deduction method depends on the purchase price.

Small items (under €450):

• Expense them immediately in the year of purchase.
• You deduct the full amount in one go.
• Examples: a €120 keyboard, a €350 webcam.

Larger items (€450 and over):

• Depreciate them over their useful life (typically 3–5 years for IT equipment).
• You deduct a fraction each year.
• Example: a €1,200 laptop depreciates at 20% per year, so you deduct €240/year for 5 years.

The breakpoint is roughly €450 (check belastingdienst.nl for the exact threshold in your tax year). Below it, expense it all at once. Above it, depreciate.

Which method is better? If you're buying a high-value item, depreciating it (spreading the cost) sometimes matches the reality of business better. But if your profit is low or zero, expensing a one-off €1,000 laptop might be wasteful (you can't use a loss-carry-forward if you don't have profit to offset). Discuss with your accountant if you're unsure.

• Collect receipts for all phone, internet, and software costs
• If phone/internet is mixed use, estimate your business percentage honestly
• Categorize software subscriptions separately (they're 100% deductible)
• For hardware, separate items by price: under €450 → expense; €450+ → depreciate
• Reclaim the BTW on all of these if you're a standard-rate taxpayer
• Keep invoices for at least 7 years

Reclaiming BTW: phone, internet, and hardware#

Here's a bonus: you can reclaim the VAT (btw) you paid on all these expenses (assuming you're a standard-rate VAT taxpayer, not under the KOR).

• Software subscription at €50/month + VAT: You pay 21% VAT (€10.50), but you reclaim it in your quarterly BTW return.
• Phone plan at €60/month + VAT: Again, 21% VAT (€12.60), fully reclaimable.
• Laptop at €1,200 + VAT: €252 in VAT, reclaimable.

Over a year, if your phone, internet, and software costs total, say, €3,000, the VAT is €630—real money back. Don't leave it on the table.

To reclaim it, you need the invoice showing the supplier's VAT-id and the VAT amount. Most modern providers email you this; some older invoices may not have it. Ask your provider if you're missing any historical invoices.

A worked example#

Let's say your annual tools look like this:

• Phone plan: €60 × 12 = €720 (you estimate 75% business, so deduct €540)
• Internet: €50 × 12 = €600 (100% business, so deduct €600)
• Slack subscription: €96/year (100% deductible)
• Adobe Creative Cloud: €624/year (100% deductible)
• New monitor at €380 (under €450, expense fully)
• New laptop at €1,200 (over €450, depreciate at 20%/year, so deduct €240 year 1)

Total deductible costs: €540 + €600 + €96 + €624 + €380 + €240 = €2,480

VAT on these costs (21%): roughly €520 (varies based on which items have VAT; some don't). You reclaim this in your quarterly return.

So your net cost is €2,480 (expense) minus the tax value of the deduction (at your marginal rate, say 49.5%) minus the VAT reclaim. That's a significant offset.

Frequently asked questions#

Tools are fundamental to running a freelance business, and the Belastingdienst knows this. Deduct them fully, keep the receipts, and reclaim the VAT. ZZP Belasting organizes these costs for you, making it simple to see your annual spend and ensure nothing is missed.

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