Travel costs deductible: what you claim in 2026

What is the travel deduction (reisaftrek)?

The travel deduction lowers the income you pay tax on. You get it when you travel to work by train, bus, tram or metro and pay the fare yourself.²

You deduct a fixed amount from a table, set by your distance and by the days a week you travel.¹ Your real ticket costs do not come into it. Commute by car, motorbike or bicycle and there is no travel deduction at all.³

Take Elena. She lives in Amsterdam and travels 38 kilometres by train to her job in Utrecht, 4 days a week. She buys her own tickets. We follow her through this page, up to the amount she enters in her return.

When are travel costs deductible?

Travel costs are deductible when you commute by public transport at your own cost.² Two more conditions apply: your distance and how often you travel. Your single trip from home to work is more than 10 kilometres.² And you travel to work at least 1 day a week or at least 40 days a year to the same workplace.² Only journeys where you go there and back within 24 hours count.²

Elena clears both. Her single trip is 38 kilometres and she is in Utrecht 4 days a week.

You also need proof of your journeys. Your carrier can issue an OV-verklaring, a statement of the trips you made.² Many carriers send that data straight to the Belastingdienst.² Do you travel on single tickets or on your personal OV-chipkaart? Then ask your employer for a reisverklaring.² It states your name, your employer's details and how many days a week you usually travel.²

Keep your own journey overview too. Your OV-chipkaart history is not stored forever.

Commuting with your own transport works differently.

How much travel deduction can you claim in 2026?

Your deduction depends on your distance and your travel days.¹ You read the fixed amount straight off the table below. The maximum for 2026 is €2,649.¹

Elena travels 38 kilometres, 4 days a week. That puts her in the 31 to 40 kilometre band, in the first column: €1,572.

Is your single trip longer than 90 kilometres? Then you count €0.29 per kilometre of that single trip.¹ Multiply that by your travel days in 2026, up to that same maximum.¹

Are you filing your 2025 return this year? The bands work the same way and only the amounts differ. The 2025 maximum is €2,609.¹ Both tables are below.

Does your employer's travel allowance lower your deduction?

Yes. Any allowance your employer pays for your public transport comes off the table amount first.¹ A partial allowance leaves you a smaller deduction. An allowance equal to or higher than the table amount leaves you nothing to deduct.¹

Elena's employer pays her €600 a year toward her train tickets. Her table amount is €1,572, so she deducts the difference. The steps are in the table below.

How do you claim the travel deduction in your tax return?

You claim the reisaftrek after the year has ended, in your income tax return (aangifte).⁴ Elena enters €972 there, under her travel costs. That amount lowers the income she pays tax on.

Do you expect a refund? Then you can ask the Belastingdienst to pay it out monthly.⁴ That runs through a provisional assessment, the voorlopige aanslag. You no longer wait a full year for your money.

Not sure about your distance, your travel days or your allowance? We work all three out with you.

What if you only commute part of the year?

Then you claim a proportionate part of the table amount.¹ Start a job in July and commute for half of 2026? Then you deduct half of what your band gives you. Did you move to the Netherlands partway through the year? The same part-year rule applies from your first working day here.

Elena's 4 days a week put her in the first column. A colleague who travels 2 days a week reads the same band in the 2-days column: €786.¹

Are you self-employed? Then you deduct your business travel through your profit, under different rules. We cover that on our page about deductible items for entrepreneurs.

One step trips people up more than any other.

What do you need to claim your travel deduction?

Three numbers decide your deduction: your single-trip distance, your travel days and your employer's allowance.¹ Check all three before you file. Then ask your carrier or your employer for the statement that proves them.²

Travel costs are one deduction among many. Our overview of tax deductions in the Netherlands shows which other costs lower the income you pay tax on. Healthcare costs and donations each have their own guide.

Elena ends the year with a €972 deduction on a journey she already makes anyway. With a voorlopige aanslag, the tax she saves on it reaches her monthly instead of once a year.⁴