Deduct public transport costs

Train, tram, metro, bus: everything is good!

In terms of deductibility, public transport is an excellent option!
They are fully deductible (if the journey has a professional purpose, of course)

As a reminder, a business trip is a trip made for the purpose of maintaining or increasing your professional income: visiting a customer or supplier or visiting a site on behalf of one of your customers are all excellent reasons. Strictly speaking, however, traveling to your own office does not fall into this category and will not usually be deductible.

Claiming VAT on a public transport ticket

In general, public transport companies are exempt from the obligation to issue users with an invoice for the delivery of tickets (tickets, cards, subscriptions). To recover VAT, your ticket will therefore be sufficient (this is an exception to the rule of proper invoices). Note that many accountants and even tax auditors don’t know this rule.

Note that the VAT on train tickets is 6%, but you will not necessarily see it indicated as such, the price of the SNCB ticket being inclusive of VAT.

What if you don’t have a ticket?

With the emergence of contactless payment terminals, it is becoming increasingly common for you to have to pay…without receiving proof of payment.

Given the small amounts involved and the identification of the suppliers (NMBS, de Lijn, STIB, TEC, etc.), these charges may be tolerated in the event of a tax inspection. The only rule: don’t overdo it.

In Accountable, you can find these expenses under the category Travel > Belgian or foreign public transport.