As an adviser or interim manager you incur costs for a client: train tickets, mileage, a hotel, sometimes fees or an extract. You recharge those costs. The question is how: as part of your revenue with VAT on top, or as a disbursement without VAT.
The answer depends on one thing: whose name is on the bill. Almost always it is your own name. Then the amount is part of your fee and you charge VAT on it just as on your advice.
In short
- A disbursement is a payment to a third party in the name and for the account of the client. If the bill is in your name, it is not a disbursement, even if you recharge it at cost.
- Recharged travel and hotel costs are part of your fee. You recharge them excluding VAT and add the rate of your advice, usually 21%. You deduct the VAT on the receipt yourself.
- If nothing was agreed, the client still has to reimburse expenses not included in your fee (Dutch Civil Code 7:406). Agree it in advance anyway, so that the invoice is not a surprise.
In this article
- When is a recharged cost a disbursement?
- How much VAT do you charge on recharged travel and hotel costs?
- May you treat a disbursement as your own costs after all?
- What if your client is in another EU country?
- How do you book recharged costs and a disbursement?
- Does the client have to pay your travel costs if nothing was agreed?
- What is the difference with an advance the client pays you?
When is a recharged cost a disbursement?
Only if you pay in the name and for the account of the client. A disbursement is a payment to a third party that you make in the name and for the account of your client. The payment rests on a direct legal relationship between that third party and your client (Decree on the VAT taxable amount, section 3.1). So the client is the customer, you only pay.
The Belastingdienst gives fees for permits and land registry charges as examples (Belastingdienst, What do you not charge VAT on?). The decree mentions, among other things, court fees paid in the name and for the account of a party to proceedings. A disbursement is not part of your fee. So you do not charge VAT on it.
If you pay in your own name, it is not a disbursement. Not even if you recharge the exact amount and state on the invoice that it is for the client's account. The decree says so literally about amounts billed directly to you: because you pay them in your own name, there is no disbursement (Decree on the VAT taxable amount, section 3.3). For a short list of such amounts, such as a trade name search at the Chamber of Commerce and land registry charges, the decree does allow them to stay outside VAT under conditions.
How much VAT do you charge on recharged travel and hotel costs?
The same rate as on your advice, usually 21%. VAT is calculated on the fee, and the fee is the total amount you charge for the service (VAT Act 1968, article 8(1) and (2)). Your train ticket and your hotel are part of that total, because you bought them in your own name.
So the rate on the receipt does not carry through. Public transport falls under the reduced rate of 9% (VAT Act 1968, table I). A hotel night has been 21% since 1 January 2026 (Belastingdienst, VAT on accommodation). On your invoice you show both amounts excluding VAT, and add 21%. You deduct the VAT you paid yourself as input VAT, because you incurred the costs for your taxable advisory work.
A common mistake is to recharge the receipt amount including VAT and then add another 21%. The client then pays VAT on VAT. Whether you deduct the VAT and recharge the net amount, or take the receipt including VAT as a cost, the invoice to the client is always based on what the cost really was for you.
A hotel abroad
VAT you pay in another EU country is not deducted in your Dutch return. You can reclaim it through the Belastingdienst if you do not have to file returns there and incurred the costs for taxable activities. Your request must be in before 1 October of the year after the year of the costs, and for a full year the minimum is € 50 (Belastingdienst, When can you submit a request?).
May you treat a disbursement as your own costs after all?
Yes, under three conditions. Sometimes you pay a bill that really belongs to your client, with VAT on it. The decree allows you to treat those costs as your own and deduct the VAT, if you recharge them for the same amount and under the same VAT treatment, show them separately on the invoice, and leave them out of your deduction on general costs (Decree on the VAT taxable amount, section 3.2).
Without that approval you may not deduct the VAT on a disbursement. Not you but the client is then the customer (Decree on the VAT taxable amount, section 3.2). The client then deducts that VAT himself if he is entitled to.
What if your client is in another EU country?
Then the costs go along with the reverse charge. Advice to a business is taxed in the country where that business is established (VAT Act 1968, article 6(1)). You send an invoice without VAT stating reverse charge (btw verlegd), report the service in your return and in the EU sales listing (Belastingdienst, services to customers in other EU countries).
Because recharged travel and hotel costs are part of the fee, they fall under the same reverse charge. So you also put them on the invoice without VAT and include them in the amount in box 3b and the listing. How to complete that return is explained in filing a VAT return, including reverse charge and the EU sales listing.
How do you book recharged costs and a disbursement?
Recharged costs in your own name are booked as costs, and the recharge as revenue. A disbursement does not go into your profit and loss account. You put it on a clearing account on the balance sheet, which returns to zero once the client pays.
Guideline 270 is in line with this. Amounts you receive for your own account are revenue. Amounts you receive for third parties are not revenue (RJ 270, paragraph 105a). Signs that it is for your own account include being responsible for the performance yourself, setting the price yourself and carrying the risk that the client does not pay (RJ 270, paragraph 105b).
| Type | When paying | When invoicing |
|---|---|---|
| Travel or hotel in your name | Costs excl. VAT, VAT as input VAT | Revenue, with 21% VAT or reverse charged |
| Disbursement | Clearing account on the balance sheet, including the third party's VAT | Clearing account back to zero, no VAT from you |
| Approval section 3.2 | Costs excl. VAT, VAT as input VAT | Same amount and VAT, separate on the invoice |
For each recharge, keep the receipt or invoice from the third party and state on your invoice what each item is. Then in an audit you can show that the amount is right and which VAT treatment you applied.
Does the client have to pay your travel costs if nothing was agreed?
Yes, if they are not already included in your fee. The client must reimburse the expenses connected with carrying out the assignment, insofar as they are not included in the fee (Dutch Civil Code 7:406(1)). Between businesses you may agree something else, for example a fixed day rate including travel.
Put it in the engagement letter anyway: which costs you recharge, at what amount per kilometre or at actual cost, and whether travel time counts. Research on partitioned prices shows why. In experiments, consumers who saw a price with a separate surcharge remembered a lower total than with a single price, and bought more often (Morwitz, Greenleaf & Johnson, 1998).
A review of later research points to the same concern: customers do not always pay attention to every part of a price and underestimate the total (Greenleaf and others, 2016). That research concerns consumers, not business clients. Still, the lesson is useful: a client who did not see the travel costs coming is more likely to dispute the invoice. A clear agreement in advance prevents that.
What is the difference with an advance the client pays you?
An advance from the client is a prepayment on your own fee, not a disbursement. VAT on an advance is due at the latest when you receive it (VAT Act 1968, article 13(2)). The part for which you have not yet done any work is not yet revenue but a liability to the client.
Is a mileage allowance I recharge also revenue with VAT?
Yes. It is part of your fee for the advice, so you charge the same rate on it as on your fee.
May I have a hotel booked in the client's name?
Yes. If the client books and pays the hotel, or you pay in the name and for the account of the client, it does not belong in your accounts as revenue. The client gets the bill and deducts the VAT himself if entitled to.
I use the small business scheme. What then?
Then you charge no VAT on your fee and so none on recharged costs either. You also do not deduct the VAT on the receipts.
Sources
- VAT Act 1968 (Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968), articles 6, 8 and 13 and table I, in force from 1 January 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- State Secretary for Finance, Decree on the VAT taxable amount (Besluit maatstaf van heffing omzetbelasting), 29 September 2025, no. 2025-23004, Government Gazette 2025, 33827, sections 2, 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3. wetten.overheid.nl
- Belastingdienst, What do you not charge VAT on? (in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, VAT on accommodation (in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Calculating VAT on services to customers in other EU countries (in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, When can you submit a request? (reclaiming VAT from other EU countries, in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Dutch Civil Code Book 7, articles 400 and 406, in force from 8 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Dutch Accounting Standards Board, RJ-Uiting 2020-15, appendix 2: Guideline 270 The profit and loss account (amended 2021), paragraphs 105a to 105d. rjnet.nl
- Morwitz, V.G., Greenleaf, E.A. & Johnson, E.J. (1998). Divide and prosper: consumers' reactions to partitioned prices. Journal of Marketing Research, 35(4), 453-463. doi.org
- Greenleaf, E.A., Johnson, E.J., Morwitz, V.G. & Shalev, E. (2016). The price does not include additional taxes, fees, and surcharges: a review of research on partitioned pricing. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 26(1), 105-124. doi.org