Search "home charging reimbursement" and you will find the same number everywhere: a fixed amount per kWh, supposedly set by the Dutch tax authority. That number is not quite right. The Belastingdienst's actual position is not built on a flat forfait at all, but on your real cost price. Here is how the rules actually work, and why the meter matters as much as the rate.
The base rule: your real cost price
Employers may reimburse home charging of a company car tax-free, but the basis for that is the integral cost price: what you actually pay your energy supplier per kWh. That is not just the bare supply rate. The Belastingdienst also counts the fixed costs, standing charges and energy tax, divided over your total annual consumption. If you have solar panels, part of their depreciation counts too.
That makes the "real" cost price a personal number. Two colleagues on the same supplier can end up with a different rate per kWh, depending on their total usage and contract.
The practical route: a fixed-price agreement for a period
Combing through an energy bill every month is unworkable for most employers, so the Belastingdienst allows a practical shortcut: employer and employee agree a fixed amount per kWh, based on a market-rate price at the time of the agreement, for instance the average annual-contract price at that moment. That agreement then holds for a fixed period, usually a year, and gets reviewed after that.
Conditions that keep coming back in practice:
- The agreed price has to be market-conform at the moment it is set, not a later estimate.
- You report how many kWh you charged, periodically (monthly, quarterly or yearly).
- Reimburse structurally more than the real or market-conform cost price, and the Belastingdienst treats the excess as wages subject to payroll tax.
Picking a flat number without that grounding, just because it is easy to calculate, is not advisable: that is exactly what the Belastingdienst asks about first in an audit.
What a dynamic (spot) tariff changes
If you charge at home on a dynamic energy contract, your real price per kWh varies by hour and by day. The principle for the reimbursement does not change: you can still reimburse your real average cost price, or set a fixed-price agreement for a period. The difference is mostly administrative. Someone who charges overnight on a cheap hour keeps a margin under a fixed agreement; someone who mostly charges during the day may end up paying more than the agreed amount covers. Both are allowed, as long as the chosen method is applied consistently and stays grounded in real numbers.
The meter: why it matters as much as the rate
The moment money changes hands based on a kWh reading, what counts is not only the rate, but whether that reading can be trusted. A regular charger meter gives a fine indication for personal use, but carries no official status. The moment an employer has to be able to rely on the number you report, that reading counts as a commercial measurement, and different requirements apply.
We cover this in detail in when do you need a MID meter: as soon as a third party (here, your employer) relies on the measurement for a payment, a MID-certified meter is the safe choice. Without one, you risk an auditor rejecting the basis for your reimbursement, even if the rate itself is correct.
What to keep on record
In practice it comes down to three things to document, whichever method you use:
- The session data: how many kWh, when, and ideally logged automatically by the charger itself rather than retyped by hand.
- The price basis: your energy bill (for the cost-price method) or the market price at the moment of the agreement (for the fixed-price method).
- The period a fixed agreement covers, so it gets reviewed on time.
Where this comes together in practice
For companies managing many home chargers across employees, this is exactly what a proper billing module is for: sessions get logged automatically per charger, tied to the right user, with MID-certified metering where that is required. Nobody has to line up kWh counters and energy bills by hand at year end.
Sources
Sources: Kennisgroep Belastingdienst, KG:204:2024:14 Opladen auto van de zaak, Jongbloed Fiscaal Juristen, Vermetten accountants en adviseurs.